Hillary,
Thank you for your response. I went back in to the form and the check boxes were markes as Text (Yes/No) when they should have been True/False (boolean). I changed the Data Type to True/False and changed the "Value when cleared" field to Blank. As part of my epiphany I also put the Submit button in a hidden section that becomes visible only when all the check boxes are not blank, i.e, checked. It works exactly as intended.
Thanks again. You were right.