Amicus Brief in North Carolina | October 27, 2024
Amicus Brief in North Carolina: Safeguarding the Votes of Overseas Deployed Military Families
We filed an amicus brief with the Secure Families Initiative in North Carolina, where efforts seek to block military and overseas deployed voters. Attempts to stop overseas families and troops from voting, so close to Election Day, flies in the face of the values our troops defend with their lives.
Deployed military members and families already face too many hurdles when voting, navigating state and local laws and the logistics of printing, sending, and returning ballots while abroad. Efforts to block their votes in North Carolina, and Pennsylvania, must be rejected as they have been in Michigan.
Federal Times | July 12, 2024
Opinion: Overuse of National Guard threatens to undermine preparedness
If used wisely, the National Guard is an invaluable asset to our national security and well-being. However, we have become concerned that the Guard is being used for an increasing number of missions outside of its core functions.
Count Every Hero | July 12, 2024
Statement of Principles on Domestic Deployment of the National Guard
Deploying the Guard on U.S. soil is a decision that should always be made judiciously. Count Every Hero published principles to help decisionmakers ensure that domestic missions are appropriate, non-politicized, and in keeping with what’s best for our nation, our states, and the Guard.
Count Every Hero | April 29, 2024
Brookings Institution Convening
Count Every Hero convened retired high-ranking military and former senior defense officials at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC, to discuss the recent surge in state directed National Guard deployments and what that means for the United States military and the 2024 election.
Stars & Stripes | April 24, 2024
Absolute presidential immunity threatens national security
A commander in chief who is exempt from the rule of law risks cascading harms to American democracy, national security and our leadership in the world. Those are the stakes as the Supreme Court considers whether the president is absolutely immune from criminal prosecution. Those stakes are why we, along with 11 of our fellow retired four-star officers and service secretaries, submitted a brief to the Supreme Court. We appreciate the significance of military leaders speaking from experience on such matters, and decided to do so precisely for that reason: to ensure the justices fully appreciate the dangers of elevating the president above the law.
National Security Leaders | April 8, 2024
Amicus brief filed in Supreme Court on presidential criminal immunity
Count Every Hero co-chairs, along with ten other retired four-star generals and admirals and former service secretaries, urged the U.S. Supreme Court to reject former President Donald Trump’s theory of absolute presidential immunity from criminal prosecution in Trump v. United States.
Count Every Hero | September 22, 2023
Letter to Senate Leadership: Move Backlog of Military Appointments
Count Every Hero urged the U.S. Senate to work together to expeditiously move the hundreds of pending military promotions, writing, “The hold on military promotions inflicts cascading harms to our national security and will gradually weaken our military’s capacity to defend our nation and to meet its global commitments.”
Partnership for Public Service | August 28, 2023
3 takeaways from our event on national security during presidential transitions
The Center for Presidential Transition® recently hosted an event with Count Every Hero to celebrate the release of our new report, “Presidential Transitions are a Perilous Moment for National Security,” which uses four historical examples to examine how new administrations can address national security challenges during presidential transitions.
Count Every Hero | May 15, 2023
Letter to MI House of Representatives: Extend Military Voting Options to Military Families
Count Every Hero wrote to support Michigan House Bill 4210, which extends voting options that meet the unique needs of active-duty military overseas to their families. “We need to ensure our service members and their families are allowed to participate in our elections, no matter where in the world they are.”
Military Times | November 22, 2022
Passing Electoral Count Act reforms is vital to national security
As former senior defense officials and military leaders, we strongly urge Congress to pass bipartisan reforms of the Electoral Count Act of 1887, or ECA, before the end of this year. In 2021, for the first time in history our nation did not have a peaceful transfer of presidential power. This was the result of attempts to use deficiencies in the ECA to overturn the results of a free and fair election. The instability that stemmed from this event continues to be a threat to our security domestically and internationally.
Project On Government Oversight | November 22, 2022
Coalition letter to Congress: protect national security from politicized civil service
The undersigned organizations write to urgently request that, as you pass the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023, you protect national security by stopping attempts to politicize our federal civil service. America’s long-term success and continued security rely on a professional, merit-based civil service composed of public servants committed to furthering the best interests of the people, regardless of partisanship or political loyalty.
Count Every Hero | October 26, 2022
Press Release: Supreme Court amicus brief filed in Moore v. Harper
Petitioners advocate adoption of a profoundly destabilizing and undemocratic approach to election administration. The independent state legislature theory would undermine election integrity and diminish public confidence in electoral outcomes. Centralizing authority over federal elections in the hands of state legislatures would result in election chaos by undermining professional nonpartisan election administrators and undoing hundreds of laws enshrined in state constitutions, adopted by voter referenda, or implemented through administrative rules. Moreover, the jettisoning of judicial review and state constitutional limitations greenlights extreme partisan gerrymandering and removes any constraint on voter suppression in federal elections. The predictable outcome is severe damage to election integrity and public faith in election legitimacy.
The Hill | August 25, 2022
To help put an end to dysfunctional politics, we must stop gerrymandering
What if we told you America has an electoral system where politicians got to choose their voters? You’d probably think we had it backwards, since what we were taught in school about basic American democracy was that every citizen has one vote to choose who represents us. The sad truth is that because of a practice called gerrymandering, politicians and political parties have more influence on who gets to represent us than we the voters do.
Count Every Hero | August 2, 2022
Letter to Senators Klobuchar & Blunt
Dear Senators Klobuchar and Blunt: We strongly support enactment of election integrity legislation that will be the subject of the Rules Committee’s hearing on August 3. We commend the members of the Committee and the Bipartisan Senate Working Group for their in-depth assessments of the fundamental flaws in the antiquated Electoral Count Act of 1887 that became apparent in the aftermath of the most recent Presidential election. These analyses are reflected in the bills that have been developed to supplant the outdated 1887 provisions with a balanced framework and unambiguous terms.
Count Every Hero | June 8th, 2022
Letter to Governor Chris Sununu
Dear Governor Sununu, We are writing to express our concerns over the provisions of New Hampshire Senate Bill 418 (SB-418) that will adversely affect our military service members’ ability to exercise their right to vote by absentee ballot. The provisions within SB-418 that extend the time for certification of vote totals will result in a three day overlap between the day military absentee ballots must be sent to military members per federal law under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) and the last day for New Hampshire local election officials to certify vote totals.
Military Times | May 27, 2021
Operation Protect Democracy: Our ongoing oath supports electoral reform
The attack on the U.S. Capitol and brazen assault on our democracy on Jan. 6 was a shocking wake-up call for America. As veterans and civilians who have served at the highest levels of defending our nation, it was outright heartbreaking to learn of the numbers of veterans who were involved. It is no secret extremists have targeted members of the military for recruitment, exploiting the experience and legitimacy they bring. While we are concerned about any veteran involvement in the riot, the unlawful and disloyal acts of a few will not define us.
Count Every Hero | April 29, 2021
Count Every Hero Launches New Campaign: Operation Protect Democracy
Count Every Hero, a cross-partisan initiative formed in the fall of 2020 to ensure military votes were counted in the general election, launched a new campaign today called Operation Protect Democracy focused on fighting corruption in politics by reforming the electoral system.
Count Every Hero | November 5, 2020
Count Every Hero Press Call: Top Brass Say Military Votes Will Make the Difference
On Thursday, November 5th, Count Every Hero held a press conference with top retired military brass discussing what recent attempts to stop the vote count means for military voters and the impact of military ballots in the still undecided 2020 Presidential race.
Count Every Hero | October 27, 2020
Military Brass Demand TV Anchors Hold Off Nov. 3
Count Every Hero, a cross-partisan group dedicated to ensuring all service members’ votes are counted before any election winners are declared, launched a new round of campaign ads just 7 days before the election. Their ads counter the President’s latest tweet demanding results by election night. If all military votes are to be counted, TV news hosts must wait until every single military vote is counted.
Count Every Hero | October 23, 2020
Count Every Hero Press Call
On Wednesday, October 21st, the Count Every Hero initiative hosted their first press call. The call featured Co-Chair of Count Every Hero, Admiral Steve Abbot, and campaign endorsers Air Force and Air Force Reserves Veteran Charlynda Scales and Retired Navy Captain Gabriel Soltero all shared their stories about the complexities of voting overseas. The call also featured Jack Noland and Anh-Linh Kearney, researchers from RepresentUs who shared an overview of their new report: Military Voting in All 50 States.
Count Every Hero | October 14, 2020
New Study: Military Votes Could Decide 2020 Election
Most overseas service members vote by mail, their ballots will arrive after Election Day, and their votes could significantly impact the November 3 election results. That’s according to a study released today by Count Every Hero, a cross-partisan campaign to ensure all service members’ votes are counted before election winners are declared.
Count Every Hero | September 22, 2020
Former Military Leaders: Count All Ballots Before Winner Declared
The unprecedented nature of the November election has led dozens of distinguished service members and veterans to support Count Every Hero, a cross-partisan public education. The aim of the group’s advertising and outreach efforts is to ensure all service members’ votes are counted before election winners are declared by candidates, election officials, and media outlets.
Count Every Hero | September 15, 2020
Count Every Hero Demands All Military Ballots Counted Before Winner Declared
Count Every Hero, a cross-partisan campaign to ensure all service members’ votes are counted before election winners are declared, launched today with support across partisan lines.