Count Every Hero filed an amicus brief with the Secure Families Initiative in Griffin v. North Carolina State Board of Elections to protect the rights of military and overseas voters.

Raleigh, NC — Count Every Hero partnered with the Secure Families Initiative to urge the Superior Court of North Carolina to reject efforts to retroactively change voting rules months after the November election. These changes would disqualify the legally cast ballots of many military and overseas voters.

In the brief, the two groups argued that the attempt to invalidate thousands of absentee ballots months after the election occurred undermined the principles of democracy and the protections afforded under federal law.

“Changing existing law after an election to nullify legally-cast ballots is not only manifestly unfair, it violates the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution”… which “demands that voters are given substantial notice of what the law is to comply with it and that they be treated on equal footing.”

-Count Every Hero and the Secure Families Initiative

The brief highlighted that the “Petitioner’s request to alter the rules after an election has been completed, and to do so only in certain disfavored counties, violates the bedrock principles of fairness and equality that form the basis of our Constitution.” Existing legal precedent makes clear that “[t]he proper vehicle to raise such issues was through a challenge to the statutes and rules themselves long before Election Day.”

The brief also emphasized that Congress designed the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) and the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment (MOVE) Act to ensure that military and overseas voters would have the opportunity to participate in elections without facing undue burdens, recognizing the substantial challenges military and overseas voters face to merely participate in elections. By challenging the validity of “outcome determinative” absentee ballots months after the election ended based on technicalities, the Petitioner in this case sought to disenfranchise a significant number of eligible voters who had complied with the established procedures at the time they cast their ballots.

Count Every Hero’s involvement in this case underscores its commitment to protecting the integrity of civil-military relations and ensuring that all eligible voters, especially those serving in the military or residing overseas, can exercise their right to vote without unnecessary obstacles. This case highlights the importance of safeguarding the democratic process by upholding the rights of all citizens, regardless of their location or status.

Read the full amicus brief here.