New Act Grants Election Offices Option to Prioritize Vets, Disabled, and Military Families for Hiring

The newly introduced Hiring Preference for Veterans and Americans With Disabilities Act is short, but it makes a significant change to how state and local election offices can fill their temporary staffing needs.

What’s the Gist?

This bill doesn't mandate anything, but it gives election offices the option to give hiring preference to three specific groups when staffing up for election seasons: veterans, individuals with disabilities, and spouses or dependents of active-duty military members who are serving away from home (SEC. 2.). The main purpose here is clearly to open up employment opportunities in election administration for people who often face barriers to employment.

Opening the Door for Vets and the Disabled

For veterans, this preference is pretty straightforward. For individuals with disabilities, the bill uses a broad definition, covering anyone whose impairment “significantly limits any major life activities they need to do” (SEC. 2.). This is meant to be inclusive, which is great, but that broad language is also where things get a little fuzzy. Since “significantly limits” is open to interpretation, local election offices will have a lot of discretion in deciding who qualifies for this preference. If you’re a qualified applicant who doesn’t fit into these categories, you might find yourself competing against a smaller, preferred pool, even if you have years of experience running local elections.

The Military Family Clause: Residency No Longer Required

The most interesting operational change is the special rule for military families. If an election office chooses to give preference to the spouses or dependents of active-duty military members who are deployed or stationed elsewhere, they cannot refuse to hire them just because they don't live in that state or local area (SEC. 2.).

Think about it: Election jobs usually require local residency to ensure workers know the local rules and voter base. This provision specifically bypasses that requirement for military families. For a military spouse who moves every few years and struggles to find stable employment, this is a huge potential benefit. They can pick up work regardless of their temporary address. However, for the local applicant pool—the neighbor who knows the precinct lines and the local ballot issues inside and out—this means they could be passed over for someone who lives across state lines or even further away. While this helps military families, it raises questions about how well non-resident workers will know the local election procedures and rules.

The Real-World Trade-Off

This bill is a classic trade-off. On one hand, it’s a positive move to leverage election work as an employment opportunity for veterans and people with disabilities, and it provides much-needed flexibility for military families. On the other hand, because this is an optional preference, local election administrators now have a new tool that could be used to narrow the hiring pool, potentially prioritizing these groups over equally or better-qualified local residents who don't fit the preference criteria. The impact depends entirely on how each individual local election office chooses to use this new hiring flexibility.