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EAC and Vet the Vote Honor Poll Workers in Dayton, Urge More Veterans to Serve at the Polls
Summary
At a Poleworker Appreciation event hosted at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, the Election Assistance Commission and partner Vet the Vote celebrated poll workers, highlighted veterans' contributions, and urged more volunteers ahead of the next federal election.
Dayton, Ohio — The U.S. Election Assistance Commission and partner Vet the Vote held a Poleworker Appreciation event at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force to recognize poll workers and encourage new recruits, especially veterans and military family members.
EAC Chairman Thomas Hicks told the crowd the commission and its partners recruited "over 160,000" veterans and military family members to serve as poll workers in 2024 and urged attendees to check and update contact information and sign up to serve again. "Please sign up again to be a poll worker," Hicks said, thanking local election offices and military hosts for supporting the event.
The event, which included welcome remarks from museum director David Tillitson and a musical opening by Master Sergeant Marvin Shelton (ret.), featured several veterans who described why they volunteer at the polls. "As veterans and military family members, we put country over party every time," Julie Hendrickx, operations director at Vet the Vote, said as she described outreach aimed at bringing more veterans into election work. Retired Navy Captain Ryolita Hildebrand described voting absentee during deployments and said her experience led her to become a voting location manager and poll-worker trainer in Green County.
Scott Weedman, director of the Federal Voting Assistance Program, reviewed the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) and related reforms, noting how federal tools—such as the Federal Postcard Application and the federal absentee ballot—have reduced late ballots for overseas and uniformed voters. "The right to vote is the bedrock of our democracy," Weedman said, explaining that the 2009 Military and Overseas Empowerment Act requires states to send federal ballots 45 days before a federal election; for the Nov. 3 general election, he said, that calendar requires ballots to start going out on Sept. 19.
Local election leaders also spoke. Montgomery County Board of Elections Director Jeffrey Resbec thanked poll workers and described the heavy logistics of running elections, while Kimberly Frisco, executive director of the Montgomery County Veteran Services Commission, encouraged employers to allow employees to volunteer and urged veterans who need benefits assistance to contact their county veteran service office.
The EAC screened recruitment and partner videos produced with sports leagues and other organizations and noted that January 27 is designated Help America Vote Day; organizers also announced a National Poleworker Recruitment Day for Aug. 11, 2026. Video remarks from Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose praised poll workers as a "second call to duty," saying Ohio uses more than 30,000 poll workers for a single election.
The event closed with remarks from Colonel Dustin C. Richards, commander of the 88th Air Base Wing, and a brief restatement of recruitment and appreciation messages from Chairman Hicks. Organizers directed attendees to partner websites—helpavote.gov and vetthe.vote—for sign-ups and more information.
Next steps: organizers urged attendees to recruit locally, encouraged employers to support employee volunteering, and pointed to the EAC and partner sites for volunteer registration and resources.
