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.
WASHINGTON, Sept. 16, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- 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.
Nearly one million active duty military members are eligible to vote absentee. The Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) of 1986 requires states to allow these military members, their eligible family, and overseas citizens to vote absentee in federal elections. Yet, in 2018, nearly one-third of non-voters in the military, our country's heroes, wanted to vote or tried to vote but were unable to do so.
Count Every Hero is committed to ensuring two major principles:
1. Every service member's right to vote must be protected and their votes must be counted.
2. Military voters must have an opportunity to register, request an absentee ballot, and cast a vote regardless of their location in the world.
"Most people across the country expect to find out who our next President will be on Election Day eve but declaring a victor too soon may undermine the results. There will also be hundreds of thousands of ballots from our active duty service members coming in from all over the world and we need to make sure their votes are counted," said General Tony Zinni (retired), Chair of Count Every Hero. "These service members fight for our freedom every day. We owe it to them to ensure their votes are counted and that they are able to cast a ballot if they want to be able to do so."
Along with General Zinni, Count Every Hero launches with the endorsement of additional veterans and service members who understand the cost of freedom, the sacrifices our service members and their families make for our country, and how vital it is that all their votes are counted:
- Lynne Blankenbecker, United States Air Force and Navy Veteran
- Marjorie K. Eastman, United States Army
- Drea Garcia, United States Marine Corps
- Zach Green, United States Marine Corps
- Lila Holley, United States Army Veteran
- Jerome Hardaway, United States Air Force
- Scott A. Huesing, Retired United States Marine Corps
- Jason Johnson, United States Army
- Patrick "Pat" Ritzel, United States Army
- Charlynda Scales, United States Air Force
- Herb Thompson, United States Army Special Forces
Many more endorsers are expected to join the campaign between now and Election Day.
"Our campaign puts country over party. It puts doing right by our country and by our country's heroes as the number one priority," stated General Zinni. "We'll continue to fight for the rights of our service members and ensure that our elections results aren't determined without their votes being counted."
###
SOURCE Count Every Hero
Share this article