U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-17) is sharply criticizing fellow members of the Pennsylvania House delegation who filed a lawsuit challenging the validity of overseas ballots cast by busy duty service members. Deluzio, a U.S. Navy veteran, said the lawsuit constitutes an “appalling attack” on the voting rights of foreign soldiers and their families.
“Remember who filed this: my Republican counterparts in the Pennsylvania delegation – all of them we voted against the approval of our choice in 2020 in an attempt to help Donald Trump overturn the Constitution. And when did they do it? After the ballots had already been distributed,” Deluzio told the Capital-Star. “It wasn’t a good faith effort for some fix that might be needed on something. No, it was an attempt to help Donald Trump, who wants to set the stage for God knows what, and is willing to go after our troops overseas, our deployed troops, to do so. And I think it’s disgusting.”
GOP U.S. Reps. Guy Reschenthaler, Dan Meuser, Glenn “GT” Thompson, Lloyd Smucker, Mike Kelly and Scott Perry – all up for re-election in 2024 – said in the lawsuit that Pennsylvania violates federal election law by not verifying members’ identities services who apply for foreign postal ballots. Under Pennsylvania Department of State guidelines, military voters and their spouses are exempt from voter identification and eligibility verification requirements.
Perry is a U.S. Army veteran and Reschenthaler is a U.S. Navy veteran.
Bye. Republican congressmen say Pennsylvania’s military voting rules violate federal law
The Pennsylvania lawsuit alleges that the state’s rule violates the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) and the Uniformed and Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA), and seeks an injunction requiring election officials to verify the identity of applicants overseas ballots and rescission and do not count ballots received before Election Day until the identity of the senders has been verified.
Deluzio is one of more than 100 Pennsylvania veterans and military family members who have signed a letter supported by Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign condemning the GOP lawsuits. “For those of us who sacrifice so much for this country, questioning or hindering our right to vote is simply treasonous,” the letter reads.
U.S. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-6), a U.S. Air Force veteran, also signed the letter, along with state Rep. Chris Pielli (R-Chester), former Rep. Chris Carney and former state official Meg Snead.
“I joined this letter here in Pennsylvania with other veterans to make clear that we find this unacceptable and that we will do everything in our power to protect the First Amendment rights and the constitutional rights of our foreign service members,” Deluzio said .
The Pennsylvania lawsuit is one of several brought by the Republican Party challenging military and overseas voting in battleground states including Pennsylvania, Michigan and North Carolina. They followed A social media post by former President Donald TrumpGOP presidential candidate who claimed without evidence that Democrats were “getting ready to FRAUD!” when sending ballots abroad using the UOCAVA act.
In a statement to the Capital-Star, Perry defended the letter as an attempt to prevent Iran from interfering in the election and accused the Pennsylvania Department of State of “turning a blind eye to non-U.S. citizens voting” through UOCAVA.
“As a combat veteran, no one believes more in protecting the sanctity of our voices – especially our service members overseas – than I do. That’s why I joined my colleagues to defend our elections from the intrusion and interference of the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism, Iran. “Iran has already demonstrated its ability to hack US voting systems – so far successfully in Alaska,” the statement reads. Perry seemed to mean a 2020 incident Where Iranian hackers gained access to some voter data in Alaska.
Later in the statement, Perry mentions a common complaint from GOP lawmakers this election cycle: non-citizen voting. In July, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill requiring people registering to vote to provide proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections and requiring states to check voter rolls for registered non-citizens.
The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, or SAVE, aims to prevent foreigners from voting. The act is already illegal because under current U.S. law only citizens can vote in federal elections, but the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 prohibits states from certifying citizenship status. Savings Act failed to advance in the US Senate.
“The Pennsylvania Department of State turned a blind eye to non-U.S. citizens voting in November under the Uniformed Foreign Nationals Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA). AP currently has 30,000 ballots cast, of which 15,000 are unregistered voters. Voting if you are not registered is illegal. “Our lawsuit seeks to ensure accountability and oversight at a time when voter confidence in the principle of ‘one person, one vote’ is needed most,” Perry said.
A spokesman for the Pennsylvania Department of State called Perry’s statement “demonstrably false.”
“As Congressman Perry, who himself has been eligible for UOCAVA protections in the past, should well know, federal and state law provides special protections for military and overseas voters. Specifically, UOCAVA ensures that certain types of voters, called federal voters, can vote for federal offices even if they are not registered in Pennsylvania,” DOS press secretary Matt Heckel wrote in an email to the Capital-Star. “The federal complaint he filed makes no factual claims of any fraud in connection with UOCAVA ballots and appears to be part of a baseless and coordinated effort to disenfranchise military and foreign nationals who have every right to participate in upcoming elections. elections.”
Harris says Trump is a fascist and “unfit to serve” at a Pennsylvania town hall
For his part, Deluzio said he makes a distinction between GOP voters and GOP politicians.
“I spend time in rooms with voters from across the political spectrum, the overwhelming majority of whom are patriotic, good and decent people who want to see our country succeed,” he said. “But right-wing politicians who carry water for Mr. Trump – that is, they believe the words of a serial liar and draft dodger about his Gold Star father, four-star General John Kelly, who will tell you what Donald Trump is sayingand people don’t listen to the desires of generals like Hitler. You have his former Secretary of Defense, Mark Esper, a West Point graduate, a guy from Western Pennsylvania, telling you that people who saw him in the Situation Room saw him around the nuclear codes, you know I don’t have the character or the ability to lead “
Court cases in Michigan and North Carolina they were released last week. But Jack Inacker, co-chair of Veterans and Military Families for Harris-Walz and an Air Force veteran, said the lawsuits represent a pattern followed by the Trump-led GOP of disrespecting service members and veterans.
“You see his attack [the late] John McCain, famous war hero; you’re starting to see attacks calling soldiers who died on the battle lines “suckers and losers.” You saw the disrespect he showed to the people at Arlington National Cemetery,” Inacker said. “And you get a very full and complete picture of who Donald Trump is.”
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.
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