Overseas voting has become the latest battlefront in Republicans\u2019 legal challenges leading up to the election. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Judges in two crucial battleground states, Michigan and Pennsylvania, this week heard Republicans\u2019 claims that officials are improperly accepting thousands of overseas ballots and could be opening the door to fraud. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And in North Carolina, a judge is scheduled to hold a hearing Monday in a similar case. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
State election officials are pushing back, insisting they are complying with legal requirements and warning the lawsuits are part of a broader campaign<\/u><\/a> to sow the seeds for postelection challenges. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Overseas ballots make up a relatively small portion of the electorate: Officials counted nearly 890,000 nationwide in 2020, according to data from the federal Election Assistance Commission. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But the group could make a sizable impact as polls show a razor-tight presidential race in critical battlegrounds with just more than two weeks until Election Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The series of new legal challenges comes as the voting bloc \u2014 which comprises uniformed service members stationed abroad<\/u><\/a>, their families and U.S. citizens living overseas \u2014 is viewed as increasingly Democratic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Federal data shows that in recent election cycles the share of overseas citizens has made up a larger proportion than the military ballots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, both parties are attempting to win over the group. The Democratic National Committee in August announced<\/u><\/a> it was for the first time making a six-figure investment in such turnout efforts. And last week, Trump announced a campaign proposal<\/u><\/a> to end the double taxation of Americans living overseas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump is meanwhile insisting without evidence that Democrats are using overseas ballots to engage in mass election fraud. Trump often accuses Democrats of widespread voting fraud despite there being no proof that exists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe Democrats are talking about how they\u2019re working so hard to get millions of votes from Americans living overseas. Actually, they are getting ready to CHEAT!\u201d Trump wrote on Truth Social last month. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Cleta Mitchell, an attorney involved in Trump\u2019s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, similarly posted Friday on the social platform X, \u201cThis is a VERY big problem that a GOP Congress with a Pres Trump must fix next year.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Under the federal Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA), states must provide eligible Americans living abroad the ability to vote absentee, including by accepting a postcard application for voter registration and ballot requests. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Republicans\u2019 lawsuits in North Carolina and Michigan claim that officials there are extending overseas voting protections to people who fall outside of UOCAVA\u2019s scope. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Both states permit overseas citizens who have never lived there to cast a ballot as long as they aren\u2019t registered elsewhere and their parents or guardians were eligible to vote in the state. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Michigan Judge Sima Patel held a nearly 90-minute hearing Thursday in Republicans\u2019 suit. She suggested their \u201cbiggest hurdle\u201d was how long they waited before filing the case. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Brandon Debus, an attorney representing the Michigan Republican Party, told the judge the issues weren\u2019t apparent until recently. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis was not an intentional or strategic delay. There would be no purpose for doing that, because it is a hurdle,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In Pennsylvania, which has sent out 25,000 ballots this year, six Republican congressmen from the state have filed a lawsuit asking to segregate overseas ballots this election. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The plaintiffs comprise GOP Reps. Guy Reschenthaler, Dan Meuser, Glenn \u201cGT\u201d Thompson, Lloyd Smucker, Mike Kelly and Scott Perry. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), a moderate, did not join, and the Republican National Committee has not gotten involved. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As opposed to the lawsuits in other states, the Pennsylvania challenge revolves around election officials exempting overseas voters\u2019 ballots from certain verification steps the congressmen claim are required by federal law. Foreign nations could \u201ceasily submit falsified\u201d ballots, the congressmen claimed in their complaint. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDefendants\u2019 disregard for the law creates an opportunity for inclusion of ineligible ballots such that the ultimate tally of the votes may not accurately reflect the legal results which could affect a close Congressional election \u2014 an injury to Plaintiffs,\u201d the complaint reads. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Attorneys for Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt (D) say the lawsuit conflates various provisions and \u201crests on their own confusion,\u201d because overseas voters are exempt. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPlaintiffs may not like the fact that the Election Code exempts UOCAVA-covered voters in this manner. But that does not create a federal cause of action or any claim against the Secretary. Current law simply does not provide for the processes that Plaintiffs appear to seek,\u201d Schmidt\u2019s attorneys wrote in court filings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n U.S. District Judge Christopher Conner, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, held a hearing Friday on the Republicans\u2019 request for an order blocking the state\u2019s guidance. The Democratic National Committee (DNC) and its state arm are attempting to intervene to defend Schmidt. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The DNC and Schmidt\u2019s office both asserted the congressmen have no legal standing and that they waited too long to bring their lawsuit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe Court cannot even reach the merits, because there are multiple threshold defects with the complaint that foreclose plaintiffs\u2019 last-minute request to disenfranchise military and other Pennsylvania voters \u2014 and that make clear that this lawsuit is really an effort to sow public doubts about the election,\u201d the DNC wrote in court filings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n John Jones, who preceded Conner as chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, said during a briefing with reporters last week that the case is \u201cemblematic\u201d of the lawsuits he presided over during the 2020 election that he believed were aimed at voter suppression. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is my opinion, but I think one of the things that Judge Conner is going to struggle with in that case, very likely, is why it was filed so late when presumably this information existed before,\u201d said Jones, who now is president of Dickinson College. <\/p>\n\n\n\n