On April 29, 2025, Secure Families Initiative testified before the U.S. Committee on House Administration at a hearing on election administration in California.
SFI Director of External Partnerships Rebecca Nowatchik described the barriers that military and overseas voters face when casting their ballots, and shared examples of policy solutions that would most effectively protect ballot access for our community.
“I am here today representing SFI, not to advocate for any partisan outcome, but to ensure that the community we represent is at the table where our access to the ballot box is being discussed by lawmakers,” Nowatchik said. “The right to vote is a cornerstone of the democracy that we as military families serve to protect. We sacrifice so much every day in order to keep the American experiment of representative government alive. And that democracy can only work if every person has full access to the ballot box, military and civilian alike.”
SFI’s Key Points
Nowatchik’s testimony included five points of emphasis:
- Military families reflect America. We come from all different backgrounds: both rural and urban, from every racial and ethnic group, religion, and sexual orientation.
- Military voters face steep logistical barriers when casting their ballots. This has contributed to a 27% deficit in our community’s voter participation.
- Arriving after the deadline and missing a date or signature are the two most common reasons a military or overseas ballot might not get counted. This is why extending ballot return deadlines and giving voters ample opportunities to fix their ballots are two of SFI’s top policy recommendations.
- Both the SAVE Act and the March 25th Executive Order would undermine ballot access for military and overseas voters. These federal policy proposals fail to take our voting experience into account and take American elections in the opposite direction of where we need to go.
- Decades of advocacy from voters have made our U.S. elections safe and secure. Lawmakers must resist imposing unnecessary and redundant barriers on voters that will disproportionately disenfranchise our military community.
Read SFI’s full written testimony:
Watch the Testimony
Watch Rebecca’s spoken testimony: