I’ve served my country overseas for decades. Now Griffin wants to toss my NC vote? | Opinion

The first time I voted was in 1984. My parents were living in Fayetteville, and I was in college in Durham, North Carolina. I was 19 years old and I cast my vote for President Ronald Reagan. My vote mattered and it counted.

Voting is integral to being an American. There is nothing more apple pie and standing up for the stars and stripes than voting. I have voted in nearly every election since that first time in a voting booth.

I joined the U.S. Army and have lived outside North Carolina since 1990. Many soldiers would change their state of residency from North Carolina so they would not have to pay state taxes, but not me, even though North Carolina did take state taxes. I was proud to call North Carolina home. I remained a resident of North Carolina, and I voted. I voted for everything from local board of education members to who sits behind the desk in the Oval Office. Voting is my right, my privilege and my responsibility.

But right now there is litigation by partisans who are trying to throw out my vote in the state Supreme Court election between Justice Allison Riggs and Judge Jefferson Griffin.

I retired from the military after 25 years of service and now serve my nation as a civil servant working overseas for the United States Army. Those partisans say my vote should not be counted because I did not copy my North Carolina driver’s license or my U.S. Army identification to prove who I am, as is required for those who arrive at the ballot box on Election Day. It is worth noting that my county election board never required nor requested me to provide a copy of any identification along with my absentee ballot. They asked me to sign an affidavit that I was an overseas voter and was who I claimed to be, and I did such. I am sure many soldiers have done the same when they were serving, as I have done so many times.



The prospect of my 2024 vote not being counted is outrageous. This is the method I have always voted since joining the Army and I was never — never — instructed to do anything differently. I wonder if my vote counted when I was deployed to Saudi Arabia? I wonder if my vote should have counted when I was stationed unaccompanied to Korea for more than a year by the Demilitarized Zone dividing the Koreas? Or should my vote have counted when I voted absentee because I was deployed to Afghanistan from 2012 to 2013?



Who I vote for is not relevant in any way to my outrage. What is relevant is the disenfranchisement of citizens because of a desire to get the result some so desperately want at a cost that is simply beyond the pale. This scorched earth quest for power is not tethered to the principles and the values that I, as an American, hold dear. History is replete with examples of those who are so willing to grab for power that they forget why they even stepped into the arena to serve. In the end, their motto is “the ends justify the means, regardless the cost.”

I served and proudly so, and part of that ethos was my ability to tell others during my service that my country gave me a voice through my vote. Sometimes my candidates lost, and sometimes my candidates won. But never has my vote been questioned and potentially excluded so willfully in an attempt to ascertain a certain partisan result.

Any political party that would support this is playing with fire, and sadly all that is wanted is a result without regard to the very fabric that made us as a nation exceptional — the sacrosanct ability to choose our leaders through voting. But when you fundamentally fail to have the very ethics that made this country great, then please don’t ask me to call you an American. My vote would be extremely easy.

This story was originally published January 24, 2025 at 5:00 AM.