Case Summary
The Republican National Committee (RNC), North Carolina Republican Party (NCGOP) and two individual voters filed a lawsuit against the North Carolina State Board of Elections (NCSBE) challenging a decade-old state law, known as North Carolina's Uniform Military and Overseas Voters Act (UMOVA), that protects the rights of certain children and dependents of military and overseas North Carolinians to register and vote in North Carolina, regardless of whether they have ever lived in the state. Plaintiffs sought an injunction from the Wake County Superior Court to prevent these eligible voters from casting a ballot, but it was rejected. The Plaintiffs appealed that decision first to the Court of Appeals and then to the North Carolina Supreme Court.
In both appellate courts, Southern Coalition for Social Justice (SCSJ), along with co-counsel Campaign Legal Center and Selendy Gay PLLC, filed an amicus brief on behalf of clients Secure Families Initiative (SFI) and Count Every Hero, an unincorporated association of nine retired four-star admirals and generals, and former secretaries of the Army, Navy, and Air Force.
The amicus brief submitted at the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court represented the perspective of military families across the country, describing the voting process for military and overseas voters and highlighting how the relief sought by Plaintiffs would disenfranchise those voters. The Court of Appeals denied Plaintiffs’ motion for writ of supersedeas and dismissed their request for a preliminary injunction.
As of April 2026, the state and national Republican Party groups' motion for summary judgment remained pending before the trial court.
Why it's Important
For more than a decade, UMOVA has protected the rights of the children and dependents of military and overseas North Carolinians to register and vote in the state regardless of whether they have themselves lived there, as long as the last place their parents or legal guardians were eligible to vote was North Carolina and the voter has not previously registered to vote in any other state. The RNC's request in this case would deliberately disenfranchise some otherwise eligible overseas and military voters, require additional verification and threaten to disenfranchise thousands of military voters, burdening the rights of all absentee military and overseas voters.
