Six Pennsylvania Republican congressmen claim in a lawsuit that Pennsylvania is violating federal election law by failing to verify the identities of service members who apply for absentee ballots abroad.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Harrisburg, alleges that the Pennsylvania Department of State’s guidance that says military voters and their spouses are exempt from voter identification and eligibility verification requirements violates the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) and the absentee voting for uniformed and foreign citizens (UOCAVA).
U.S. Reps. Guy Reschenthaler, Dan Meuser, Glenn “GT” Thompson, Lloyd Smucker, Mike Kelly and Scott Perry initially filed the lawsuit on Sept. 30 and filed an amended complaint on Monday. All are running for re-election in 2024.
The lawsuit seeks to order election officials to verify the identities of overseas ballot applicants, and to order any ballots received before Nov. 5 to be separated and not counted until the senders’ identities are verified.
The Pennsylvania Department of State, which oversees elections in the commonwealth, said in a statement that the lawsuit appears to be a continuation of proceedings first brought in 2020 that were intended to sow confusion and overturn the votes of millions of Pennsylvanians in this year’s presidential election.
“Thousands of Pennsylvanians are currently serving our country overseas as military members, risking their lives to defend our freedoms. “Yet despite the sacrifices they make to protect us, some elected leaders are now making bad faith arguments to prevent these votes from being counted,” said DOS spokesman Matt Heckel.
Heckel noted that the lawsuit was filed two weeks after Pennsylvania counties began sending ballots to military and overseas voters, baselessly challenging Pennsylvania law that clearly outlines procedures for processing ballot requests from overseas voters.
“Ballots cast by ineligible voters are extremely occasional, and when they do occur, they are routinely investigated and prosecuted by the appropriate authorities. “People registering to vote must confirm that the information they provide is accurate, and any false representation exposes them to a potential criminal conviction, prison time and a significant fine,” Heckel said.
In a press release after The case was first reported by the Washington Post. on Wednesday, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee took aim at Perry, who faces a particularly competitive re-election challenge from former television journalist Janelle Stelson in the 10th District, calling it a “disgraceful” attempt to disenfranchise service members.
The DCCC noted that Perry voted against support for homeless, pregnant and unwell veterans who have been exposed to toxic substances, including Agent Orange and burns.
“With a deeply unpopular past, Scott Perry knows the only way he can stay in power is to disenfranchise and disenfranchise voters, even our troops serving overseas. “Pennsylvania deserves much better than Perry’s blatantly selfish desperation,” said DCCC spokesman Aiden Johnson.
A spokesman for Perry’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Republicans sent mixed news on absentee voting, with GOP attorneys across the country filing lawsuits in Pennsylvania to throw out absentee ballots due to documentation errors and elsewhere to make it more challenging for voters to obtain an absentee ballot and have it counted.
Perry himself encouraged Republican Party voters to do so We encourage you to vote by correspondencenoting at the Harrisburg Conservative Conference in April that it was popular with Democrats and unlikely to go out of business.
Perry urges Republicans to vote by mail at the Conservative conference
The lawsuit names Commonwealth Secretary Al Schmidt and Deputy Elections Secretary Johnathan Marks as defendants in the lawsuit. It alleges that Schmidt and Marks “through guidance and guidance to county election officials” completely exempt uniformed and overseas voters from the identity and eligibility verification required by HAVA and Pennsylvania law.
The lawsuit alleged that Iranian citizens could “easily create and transmit forged documents [overseas ballot applications] in the Pennsylvania federal election on November 5, 2024.” It cites a 2021 U.S. Department of Justice indictment of two Iranians who attempted to intimidate and influence voters during the 2020 election.
A hearing on the congressmen’s injunction request is scheduled for Oct. 18 in Harrisburg.
