She has a mission; recruiting veterans to serve as poll workers, poll monitors, election judges, election clerks and volunteer deputy registrars this November.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a continuation of your service and your loyalty to your country to get involved in the election right now,\u201d she said, as she\u2019s been telling veterans at election-worker recruitment events around the city this year.<\/p>\n
The organization\u2019s members believe that the military discipline, leadership and integrity veterans have make them uniquely qualified to serve the community in these capacities.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe oath still stands, whether you\u2019re wearing the uniform or not, we want you to serve your country again,\u201d Spinks said.<\/p>\n
Telling voters that veterans serve as poll workers has actually been proven to increase voter trust in the election process. The University of Maryland\u2019s Center for Democracy and Civic Engagement<\/a> conducted research this summer and found that even the most distrustful voters are 15% more likely to trust the process when they hear veterans and their family members are manning the polls.<\/p>\n Building trust in elections<\/p>\n In recent months, Bexar County Elections has been working through hiccups with the state\u2019s TEAM voter registration system. <\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re wanting to build voter confidence, but TEAM has destroyed the voter confidence that\u2019s in place,\u201d Bexar County Elections Administrator Michele Carew told the San Antonio Report<\/a> in August. <\/p>\n Updates to the state\u2019s voter registration system caused a massive registration backlog<\/a>\u00a0last year, but Bexar County must use the system through the midterms until January.<\/p>\n After mistrust was sown during the 2020 election, the jobs of election administrators became harder, with many reporting harassment<\/a> and lots leaving the industry<\/a> all together.<\/p>\n Carew only arrived at her Bexar County job in February of last year<\/a>, after she was previously pushed out of her Hood County position by those dissatisfied with the 2020 election results<\/a> and her leadership.<\/p>\n As part of his ongoing efforts to undermine the results <\/a>of the 2020 election, President Donald Trump wrote a letter<\/a> to Gov. Greg Abbott in 2021 asking for an audit of the results in Texas, a state that Trump won.<\/p>\n \u201cTexans know voting fraud occurred in some of their counties. Let\u2019s get to the bottom of the 2020 Presidential Election Scam!\u201d Trump wrote in the letter<\/a>.<\/p>\n A subsequent state audit<\/a> found the state\u2019s elections to be secure.<\/p>\n Texas now also has a new top dog at the helm of statewide elections this year. Robert Howden<\/a> assumed the role of interim secretary of state after Jane Nelson left her job as Texas\u2019 chief election official\u00a0in July.<\/p>\n Managing elections for a state as large as Texas, and one without an online voter registration system, is not always smooth sailing<\/a>. <\/p>\n Just this week The Texas Tribune and Votebeat <\/a>reported state officials discovered that tens of thousands<\/a> of voter registration applications were not processed due to an error by the Texas Department of Public Safety. In Bexar County<\/a> this amounted to 45,000 unprocessed applications.<\/p>\n Getting veterans to the polls<\/p>\n Support and Defend isn\u2019t the only organization aiming to recruit veterans to win over the hearts and minds of election skeptics.<\/p>\n Vet the Vote<\/a> is a nonpartisan organization working to recruit 250,000 veterans<\/a> and military family members to serve as poll workers in the upcoming midterms.\u00a0<\/p>\n They\u2019ve had substantial success.<\/p>\n Since launching in 2022, over 168,000 members of the military community have signed up to work the elections. The organization has hubs in five states, Texas being one of them.<\/p>\n With 1.5 million veterans, no state has more recruitment opportunities than Texas.<\/p>\n Texas lead Camellia Jackson said the organization came to the state in light of poll worker shortages from the pandemic and an aging volunteer base.<\/p>\n As a Navy veteran, Navy spouse and Navy mom, Jackson said military families are patriotic, they come from all walks of life and they know how to put differences aside to work together to serve the nation \u2014 making them ideal election workers.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a sense of comfort in knowing that somebody who\u2019s already committed to serve has signed up to serve again,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n She said veterans are trusted and respected by the general public, but more importantly, they are known as strict rule followers. <\/p>\n \u201cIn the midst of the doubt that\u2019s been sown since 2020 and 2022, there\u2019s a sense of security when you see somebody with the Vietnam veterans hat on during the process,\u201d Jackson said.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/michele-carew-1.jpg\")
Bexar County Elections Administrator Michele Carew is shown briefing reporters on Election Day on Nov. 4, 2025. Credit: Brian Kirkpatrick \/ Texas Public Radio<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/EarlyVoting_VoteHere_ElectioneeringCampaiging_PollSites_PollingLocations09_05.18.2026_AmberEsparza-s.jpeg\")
Early voting will run from Oct. 19 through Oct. 30. Election Day is Nov. 3. Credit: Amber Esparza \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n