Some foreigners living abroad, including active duty service members and their families, are sounding the alarm after Republicans in three swing states tried to delay the acceptance and counting of foreign ballots.
And there is already fear among Americans, at home and abroad, that whatever the outcome, the damage has already been done, according to Sarah Streyder, executive director of the Secure Families Initiative, a nonprofit that advocates for the rights of military families. .
“We’re already hearing from military voters in every state who feel discouraged from participating because they’re worried their vote won’t even count,” Streyder, who is stationed in England with her husband, who is a member of the Space Force, told reporters. on Friday with a video news release with other advocates.
Absentee ballots are scheduled to be mailed to the Wake County Board of Elections in Raleigh, NC on September 17, 2024.
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The elections officials and other political science experts say the lawsuits filed in Pennsylvania, Michigan and North Carolina in the past two weeks lack merit. The Republican lawsuits, however, allege that state election offices created loopholes that allowed absentee ballots to be cast.
GOP questions absentee ballots, election officials push back
On September 30, five Pennsylvania GOP House members running for re-election — Guy Reschenthaler, Dan Meuser, Glenn Thompson, Lloyd Smucker and Mike Kelly — filed suit against Al Schmidt, the Commonwealth’s secretary and deputy secretary of elections. Jonathan Marks has accused local election offices of providing guidance to foreign absentee voters not to accept ID requirements.
“The commonwealth’s practice is an unlawfully structured election process that makes Pennsylvania elections vulnerable to ineligible ballots . . . when potentially eligible individuals or entities register to vote without verifying their identity or eligibility but receive a mail-in ballot and then vote. Without providing identification at any step of the process,” the plaintiffs in the Pennsylvania lawsuit alleged.
Reschenthaler is the only member of the five plaintiffs with military experience, having served as an attorney for the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps from 2009 to 2012, according to his biography. He was deployed to Iraq during his JAG tenure.
The Pennsylvania Secretary of State said in a statement that the lawsuit is “nothing more than an attempt to confuse and intimidate people before an important election.” state law ensures that all overseas ballots sent are eligible.
People wait in line before voting “On Demand” using absentee or mail-in ballots in Doylestown, PA on October 15, 2024.
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“Ballots cast by non-voters occur at very low rates and are usually investigated and prosecuted by the appropriate authorities when they occur. People who register to vote must confirm that the information they submit is accurate, as any false declaration can result in a possible felony conviction, prison term. punishment and a heavy fine,” the office said in a statement.
Pennsylvania election officials could not immediately provide ABC News with data on how many absentee ballots have been sent abroad today and how many of those ballots have been returned.
The Republican National Committee filed a pair of lawsuits last week in North Carolina and Michigan, arguing that their state rules violate federal law and allow expats to vote even if they’ve never lived in their state.
In both lawsuits, RNC officials charge that state election officials have failed to create a secure system to verify that a foreign voter is American and invoke provisions in their election laws that allow their spouses or foreign voters’ spouses or foreign voters’ dependents to vote. Vote in the election based on the residence of the military or overseas voter.
“As a result, certain individuals who have never lived in Michigan (or possibly anywhere else in this country) are registering to vote and vote in Michigan elections,” the plaintiffs in the Michigan lawsuit say in their filing.
Similar language was used in the North Carolina case.
A US expatriate casts his vote in the US Democratic primary election at a polling station set up in a comedy club in Amsterdam, March 4, 2024.
Evert Elzinga/AFP/AFP via Getty Images
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel filed amicus briefs this week seeking to dismiss his state’s case, saying the plaintiffs lack merit in their claims.
“To challenge a decades-old statute in this frivolous manner is reckless and abusive. Their actions are a clear attempt to cast doubt on the integrity of elections and suppress the legitimate votes of the American people,” he said in a statement.
Nessel noted that absentee ballots have already been mailed to Michigan voters living abroad, and the RNC has not filed a timely notice of plans to sue under the Michigan Claims Court Act.
Patrick Gannon, a spokesman for the North Carolina State Board of Elections, echoed that sentiment and maintained that the state law allowing military family members to vote in the state is valid.
“North Carolina lawmakers passed this law more than 13 years ago as a way to implement a federal law that required states to make voting more accessible to military families and other citizens living overseas. It has been part of our state law every election since.” he said in a statement.
As of Friday afternoon, more than 22,000 Michigan military and overseas voters have filed to vote in the general election, according to data from the Michigan Secretary of State’s office. Of that number, almost 8,000 voters have already completed and submitted their ballots for counting, the data shows.
As of Friday afternoon, 8,451 North Carolina absentee ballots have been requested by members of the military and 20,571 absentee ballots have been requested by civilians living abroad, according to data from the North Carolina State Board of Elections.
Of these requests, 8,331 were sent to military voters and 2,434 of them were returned and approved, the commission reported. There were 20,449 missing votes sent to other foreigners, and 10,481 of these votes were returned and accepted, according to the data.
Veterans, expatriates are outraged by the move
Ray Kimball, who volunteers in Arizona for the nonpartisan advocacy group Veterans for All Voters, told reporters Friday he was outraged by the allegations made by officials who questioned the validity of absentee ballots in 2020.
Kimball, a former Pennsylvania voter who said she voted mostly by mail when she was deployed overseas, said she was surprised that “partisan actors are doubling down” despite having no evidence for their claims.
“I took that as a personal affront to what I and tens of thousands of Americans, including service members and foreign civilians, did in the years leading up to this story,” he said.
Carmen Egoavil, 67, voted by absentee ballot or mail-in ballot as Silvia Egoavil, 38, of Doylestown, Pennsylvania, helped on Oct. 15, 2024.
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One of the biggest concerns of legal experts and foreign voters is the request in the three cases to separate foreign ballots and stop counting them until the identity is verified.
Susan Dzieduszycka-Suinat, president and CEO of the US Vote Foundation, a nonprofit group that provides resources to help expats vote, told reporters the move was “simply to reduce the number of votes counted overall.”
“It’s a complete disenfranchisement of American citizens,” said Dzieduszycka-Suinat, who lives in Munich. “We are US citizens. We have a secure voting process.”
People wait in line to vote during early voting at a polling place in Black Mountain, NC, on October 18, 2024.
Allison Joyce/AFP via Getty Images
Philadelphia City Commissioner Lisa Deeley told reporters she is concerned that if the request is approved, it would put unnecessary extra work on already overtaxed election workers.
“Taking that time, energy and effort further erodes people’s confidence in elections,” he said.
Lawsuits are just the beginning: the expert
Michael Traugott, a research professor emeritus at the University of Michigan’s Center for Policy Studies, told ABC News that the three suits are part of a strategy by Republican leaders to cast doubt on the outcome of the election in the coming months.
He predicted that all three lawsuits would be dismissed, especially in Michigan, where the secretary of state has been ineffective in determining voter eligibility.
“They do it in a very careful and systematic way and it has worked,” he said.
A long line of potential voters wait outside an early voting site in Asheville, NC, on October 17, 2024.
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Traugott said election offices will be prepared for such attacks, but they may not be able to control the public relations damage caused by the lawsuits.
Kimball, however, said he believes the majority of voters want more access to the right to vote.
“At the end of the day, this shouldn’t be a partisan issue. We should get behind the idea of Americans voting wherever they are around the world,” he said.
