Six GOP congressmen sue to have Pa. military and overseas ballots set aside in November election

Six Republican members of Congress are suing the Pennsylvania Department of State, arguing that ballots from overseas voters — including members of the U.S. military — are susceptible to fraud because those voters are not subject to ID requirements applied to U.S.-based absentee voters.

None of the six lawmakers, who represent Pennsylvania, voted to certify the 2020 election results, and the lawyers working with them were involved in the election-denial efforts in 2020.

Several election-law experts called the suit a voter-suppression play that faces little chance in court given its last-minute filing before the highly consequential presidential election in Pennsylvania.

“This is not designed to fix a problem that actually exists,” David Becker, of the nonpartisan Center for Election and Innovation, said of the lawsuit. He sees it as a move to sow distrust ahead of the election.

“If their preferred candidate loses, you are guaranteed to hear an attack on military voters, how they are somehow a pathway to fraud,” Becker said. “And I would hope that we all, no matter who we voted for, would be offended by that attack.”

In the federal lawsuit, filed late last month, the lawmakers requested the segregation of Pennsylvania’s overseas absentee ballots cast in November’s election, pending more stringent verification of voters’ identities and more detailed guidance from state elections officials to ensure that verification takes place.

The Pennsylvania Department of State says it complies with state and federal law on the matter and called the lawsuit a “bad-faith argument” aimed at preventing thousands of Pennsylvania voters’ ballots, including those of service members, from being counted.

“This lawsuit is nothing more than an attempt to confuse and frighten people ahead of an important election,” said Matt Heckel, press secretary at the Department of State.

State and federal law exempts certain voters, including those overseas and serving in the military, from the election code’s ID requirements for absentee voters, which require a driver’s license number or the last four digits of the voter’s Social Security number to receive a ballot. The state’s top election officials — who previously responded to a similar challenge that has lingered in Commonwealth Court for more than a year — say instances of voting fraud associated with these ballots are extremely rare.

“Ballots cast by ineligible voters occur at extremely low rates and are routinely investigated and prosecuted by the appropriate authorities when they occur,” Heckel said. “Individuals registering to vote must affirm that the information they submit is accurate, with any false statement subjecting them to a potential felony conviction, prison sentence, and substantial fine.”

The lawsuit was filed by U.S. Reps. Guy Reschenthaler (R., Washington), Lloyd Smucker (R., Lancaster), Dan Meuser (R., Luzerne), Glenn Thompson (R., Centre), Mike Kelly (R., Butler), and Scott Perry (R., York).

While the suit was filed on behalf of the lawmakers in their capacity as candidates running for reelection, a ruling in their favor could have implications for the presidential election in Pennsylvania, a state that has been pivotal in determining the national winner in the last two elections by a razor-thin margin and promises to do the same in November.

About 25,000 overseas ballots for the 2024 election have already been sent out to military members, their family members, and other citizens living abroad, according to the complaint.

The lawsuit, filed two weeks after counties started mailing ballots to military and overseas voters, focuses on the identification requirements for people who request absentee ballots through UOCAVA, the federal Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act. The process requires applicants to fill in their name, voting address, and current overseas mailing address. The online form asks for the last four digits of their Social Security number or for a driver’s license number, but if applicants have neither, they can enter “NONE.”

The UOCAVA law has been around since 1986 and was written to avoid an overly cumbersome voting process for members of the military. It could be amended by an act of Congress.

“This is a dangerous political stunt,” Becker said. “If Congress thought UOCAVA needed clarification or additional requirements, what have they been doing? It’s just an incredible self-indictment of their legislative responsibilities.”

Attorneys for the plaintiffs contend that the ID exception could “make Pennsylvania’s elections vulnerable to ineligible votes by individuals or entities who could purport to be UOCAVA-eligible, register to vote without verification or identity or eligibility but receive a ballot by email and then vote a ballot without providing identification at any step in the process.”

It goes on to charge that “Foreign nations, in efforts to interfere with U.S. elections, could easily submit falsified … ballots to unduly influence U.S. elections.”

Several lawsuits related to overseas voters were filed in recent weeks. The Republican National Committee filed a lawsuit in North Carolina last week challenging the eligibility of a group of overseas voters. And on Tuesday, national Republicans filed a similar lawsuit in Michigan.

Casting doubt on Pennsylvania’s election system was a tactic used by Trump-aligned groups in 2020 to try to overturn the election. Neither the Republican National Committee nor the campaign for former President Donald Trump has signed onto the current lawsuit.

A senior adviser for Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign accused the lawmakers of “trying to set aside votes so that they can argue that the election somehow was untoward or not handled in the appropriate fashion.”

The Democratic National Committee has intervened as a party in the case, contending that lawmakers’ request would harm its voter outreach efforts and force it divert resources.

“Setting aside tens of thousands of ballots cast by lawfully registered military and overseas voters … would directly and substantially impair the rights and interests of the DNC and the [Democratic Party],” the committee wrote. “Both groups devote substantial time and resources to campaigning and get-out-the-vote efforts, which would be infringed upon.”

A similar suit was brought last year in state court by Heather Honey, a Pennsylvania-based “election integrity” investigator whose often-disproven research has been promoted by the far right.

The state responded to Honey’s suit — which is still lingering in court — in June and said it was in compliance with election law.

A member of Honey’s Election Research Institute, Karen DiSalvo, is now cocounsel in the federal complaint. The other attorney representing the lawmakers is Erick Kaardal, a Minneapolis-based lawyer, who challenged Congress’ certification of the 2020 election on behalf of voters’ groups in Pennsylvania.

The Department of State has until Friday to respond to the suit, with a hearing set for mid-October.

“This challenge appears to be a continuation of the unfounded litigation in state and federal court filed in 2020 in an effort to sow confusion and ultimately to throw out the votes of millions of Pennsylvanians and overturn the results of that legitimate election,” department spokesperson Amy Gulli said in a statement. “Those efforts failed then, and these latest dishonest efforts will also fail.”