Military voters are under unprecedented attack and we need your help.
After weeks of baseless rhetoric and politically motivated attacks on military and overseas voters, politicians have filed lawsuits challenging the validity of our votes in Pennsylvania, Michigan and North Carolina. They have made the callous decision that it is worth risking troops’ votes for a perceived political gain, and we fear more lawsuits are coming.
No matter where we live or what state we vote in, US troops and their families like us have the right to vote. We must fight back against the unprecedented attacks on our community.
Join the Community Letter
We’re sending a letter to the chief election officer in all 50 states to urge public, unequivocal support of our community’s right to access the ballot box. We need leaders across all parties to speak out against the political attacks. With fewer than 3 weeks until Election Day, we cannot afford to delay.
Please read the letter below and consider signing on in support of all military and overseas voters. Thank you!
Text of the Letter
Dear Secretary,
Military voters are under unprecedented attack, and we need your help.
As actively-serving military spouses and family members, we are appalled by the recent anti-democratic and unpatriotic attacks on the rights of military and overseas Americans to vote. We request your support in ensuring absentee military personnel and Americans abroad retain our right and access to take part in U.S. elections fully.
Politically motivated legal actions in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and North Carolina threaten the legal votes of countless troops and family members aiming to participate in the very democracy we work to defend. Fueled by baseless rhetoric aiming to sow distrust in our elections and divide the American public, these lawsuits are causing real harm to our military community. Military voters have been voting by mail since the Civil War, and the law governing today’s process was established by a bipartisan vote and signed by President Ronald Reagan in 1986. We have relied on this process for nearly 40 years! Filing legal challenges 3 weeks before Election Day, after ballots have already been mailed to military and overseas voters, is unconscionable and reeks of political gamesmanship.
As you know, each state has robust laws governing voter registration, identification, and the transmission of ballots to voters who are active-duty military and overseas citizens abroad. There is a rigorous system of checks and balances to ensure only eligible U.S. citizens are voting, and there has been no evidence of fraud committed by UOCAVA voters. Any suggestion that the military or overseas voting process is too simple is laughable to our community; we have a 27% voter participation deficit compared to civilian voters, partly due to how many logistical challenges we already face.
Furthermore, these legal efforts target members of our community who have historically faced even steeper barriers to voting in our country. Roughly 49% of new military recruits identify as Black, Indigenous, or a Person of Color. The reckless political rhetoric behind these suits is a slap in the face to the generations of people throughout American history who have raised their voices, fought, and died to establish and preserve the right to vote for every American. After the Civil War, Black American veterans were threatened, beaten, and murdered for attempting to exercise their constitutional right to vote. Native Americans, who serve in the armed forces at a higher rate than any other demographic, faced centuries of struggle before acquiring full legal protection of their voting rights as citizens. When Asian Americans were incarcerated in internment camps during World War II, they fought to preserve their core tenant of citizenship: the right to vote. For nearly a century, Hispanic U.S. citizens faced severe brutality to access the polls as equitably as their neighbors.
The latest legal harassments are a direct attack on our national security, democracy, and freedoms.
No matter where we live or what state we vote in, U.S. troops and their families like us have the right to vote. We urge you to strongly and publicly protect one of the most sacred rights of our military community: to vote and to have our votes counted. Please, no matter your political beliefs, we must agree that the votes of service members, military families, and Americans living overseas must not be manipulated for political leverage. Defend our votes!