⁍ A decade after Dan Berschinski deployed to Afghanistan to fight for freedom and lost his legs in battle, the former Army infantry officer is training for a key role in U.S. democracy.

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⁍ The retired Army captain, now 36, said a ‘perfect storm’ is driving him and other former military members to volunteer at voting centers on Election Day.

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⁍ ‘Our infrastructure is undermanned and the people who traditionally do this job for us are at risk,’ said Berschinski.

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– With the US election less than two weeks away, thousands of veterans are volunteering their time to help out at the polls. “Our infrastructure is undermanned and the people who traditionally do this job for us are at risk,” says Dan Berschinski, a 36-year-old former Army captain who lost his legs when he stepped on an IED in Afghanistan a decade ago. “We’re trying to get vets engaged as poll workers to assist in pulling off a free and fair election, protect the elderly—who constitute the majority of poll workers—during COVID, and get a new generation involved in their communities,” says Christopher Purdy, program manager for Veterans for American Ideals, a nonprofit that’s part of Human Rights First’s #VetsPowerThePolls project. Purdy says the group has signed up 900 post-9/11 vets to work at polling stations in Wisconsin, Georgia, Iowa, and Michigan, where polls are expected to be open from 6am to 8pm on Election Day. Berschinski, who earned his MBA from Stanford Business School in 2015, says he’s “perfectly healthy” and “younger and, other than not having any legs, I’m perfectly healthy,” but “it’s another way to give back to the country that has been a big part of my life. It just seems the right thing to do now.” Reuters reports that Berschinski is one of 1,000 military veterans expected to be recruited by Human Rights First as poll workers.