Brave service members, their families and other Americans abroad have the same rights as any other American, including the freedom to vote. Those who have made great sacrifices for our country deserve to be able to make their voices heard like any other citizen.
Military and overseas voters are able to exercise their freedom to vote in large part due to a federal law: the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA).
This law recognizes the unique challenges military and overseas voters face, and specifically protects their freedom to vote by guaranteeing that Americans who are serving their country or living abroad can vote from their home state in federal elections.
UOCAVA is important in ensuring all voters’ voices can be heard and has been an essential part of the voting process for decades.
Unfortunately, on the eve of an election, partisan actors have filed lawsuits attempting to take away military and overseas voters' freedom to vote. Military and overseas voters immediately jumped in to fight back and won.
Filed at the eleventh hour, three lawsuits have attempted to challenge state laws that expand on UOCAVA to further protect the freedom to vote for military and overseas voters, including their spouses, children and other dependents.
These actions directly threaten military and overseas voters’ freedom to vote by attempting to undermine the protections offered to them by their home state under both federal and state law. In addition, these lawsuits intend to sow uncertainty among overseas and military voters about whether they can register and vote and, if they do, whether their vote will count.
Let us be clear: Attacking military service members’ freedom to vote — especially while an election is underway — is un-American.
Campaign Legal Center (CLC), on behalf of Secure Families Initiative (SFI) and, in North Carolina, Count Every Hero, filed two “friend of the court” briefs in a federal district court in Pennsylvania and in the North Carolina Court of Appeals arguing that two of these lawsuits should be dismissed.
CLC, SFI and Count Every Hero filed suit to defend laws that protect the freedom to vote for Americans living and serving abroad. We urged the courts to take swift action in both of these cases so military and overseas voters can make their voices heard this November.
But, courts have already rejected these attempts in all three states. A federal court in Pennsylvania dismissed one of these eleventh-hour challenges. And in Michigan and North Carolina, the state district courts ruled that they would not disenfranchise overseas and military voters ahead of the November election.
These wins solidify that military and overseas voters should be able to exercise their freedom to vote without unnecessary intervention. The court of appeals in North Carolina affirmed the lower court's decision, and we hope that the North Carolina Supreme Court will follow suit and affirm the lower court’s protection of miliary and overseas voters.
In red, blue and purple states alike, military and overseas voters have exercised their freedom to vote without problems. Raising these questions at the very last minute is a plot to throw out Americans' votes and cast doubt on the election, which has now been rejected by courts in all three states.