Republicans have filed lawsuits in the battleground states of Michigan, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania aimed at rules that allow U.S. citizens overseas to register to vote online without providing identification.
The lawsuits, citing the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA), argue that current overseas voting regulations are vulnerable to election fraud. They say that individuals are being allowed to register in a state without providing an ID or any evidence they ever actually resided there.
The challenges coincide with allegations raised about non-citizens voting by Donald Trump and his supporters including Elon Musk.
Former Trump spokeswoman Liz Harrington noted in a post to X: "There’s 25,000 UOCAVA ballots in PA already for 2024 and only 3,600 were to members of the military and their family. 85% of UOCAVA ballots were EMAILED and PA is doing NO citizenship verification."
In Pennsylvania, the federal lawsuit filed by six Republican members of Congress on Sept. 30 claims that the state’s overseas ballots are at risk of fraud due to the absence of voter ID requirements for these voters.
The Pennsylvania suit, which was amended on Monday, names Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt and Deputy Secretary for Election Jonathan Marks, alleging that the officials are complicit with overseas voters to bypass ID requirements under UOCAVA.
“Essentially, the Defendants through directives and guidance to county election officials exempt UOCAVA applicants entirely from verification of identity and eligibility as required under state law and federal law,” the GOP lawmakers alleged in their amended complaint.
In filing lawsuits in Michigan and North Carolina, the Republican National Committee (RNC) pointed to the UOCAVA, which they argue has been abused to allow people to register to vote online without providing valid identification, a Social Security number, or proof of citizenship and address.
The RNC initiated lawsuits on Tuesday in North Carolina and Michigan state courts, accusing officials of unlawfully using UOCAVA to extend voting eligibility to people whose residency in those states has not been verified.
“North Carolinians and Michiganders should not have their votes canceled by those who’ve never lived in the state in the first place — plain and simple,” RNC Chairman Michael Watley said. “This is illegal and we will stop it. While Democrats want an election system that disregards the law, we are committed to election integrity across the country.”
The crux of the argument surrounds both states’ constitutions, which forbid anyone from voting in those states if they have never resided there. The federal UOCAVA does not make any explicit exemptions that would override those state constitutions.
"Trump and other critics fear that the overseas ballots would be wrongly counted as votes that originated from those swing states, with no clear indication that the overseas voters actually have ties to the specific states," Kaelan Deese wrote for the Washington Examiner on Monday.
Musk amplified his concerns in a post on X:
Is this for real? https://t.co/S4WqdUXaGW
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 4, 2024
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