HARRISBURG, Pa. — A federal judge on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit by six Republican members of Congress who sought to have Pennsylvania election officials institute new checks to confirm the identities of soldiers, sailors and others who vote from abroad and ensure they vote in qualify.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Conner said he agreed with the defendants — Secretary of State Al Schmidt and one of his top deputies — who argued there were no grounds to file a lawsuit and that the case was overdue and started too close to election day.
Pennsylvania’s congressmen “provide no good excuse for waiting until barely a month before the election to file this lawsuit,” Conner wrote. When the case was filed in late September, more than 25,000 overseas ballots had already been mailed, the judge noted.
The lawsuit was filed by six of the eight Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives: Representatives Guy Reschenthaler, Dan Meuser, GT Thompson, Lloyd Smucker, Mike Kelly and Scott Perry. The other plaintiff is PA Fair Elections, a group led by Heather Honey, an election researcher whose work has fueled right-wing attacks on voting procedures. Messages seeking comment were left with their attorneys on Tuesday.
During a streamed update on election matters Tuesday, Schmidt said his office is “pleased that this frivolous lawsuit has been dismissed.”
Conner said prosecutors were asking “to impose new verification procedures that prosecutors themselves have not been able to fully develop three weeks into this trial.” He said an order now would “upend the Commonwealth’s carefully crafted election administration procedures, to the detriment of countless thousands of voters.”
During the day oral arguments on October 18, Conner asked why the plaintiffs had not filed a lawsuit sooner over proceedings that had been ongoing for years. He also urged their attorneys to show how their clients were directly harmed by the current policy, as required for such claims.
The order issued Tuesday said Republican members of Congress had only “hypothetical concerns” about the impact foreign votes could have on their own reelection contests.
“Their status as candidates, without more, gets them nowhere,” the judge wrote.
The case could have affected thousands of ballots Pennsylvania, a crucial swing state in the presidential battle between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.
The plaintiffs had asked the judge to declare the current practice illegal under federal law and to order that the Secretary of State consult with members of Congress and PA Fair Elections on how to determine the identity and eligibility of people who cast ballots under the U.S. Uniformed and Overseas Citizens could be verified. Absentee Voting Act. They also asked to be abroad and military ballots separated during the current election season pending additional verification.
Lawyers for Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration, representing Schmidt and his deputy, had argued that prosecutors said valid votes could be diluted by improper votes, which they said would not be sufficient reason for the judge to act. They said federal laws exempt foreign voters “from identification requirements imposed on other voters who register to vote by mail.”
Military voters are more likely to lean Republican, while other overseas voters are more likely to lean Democratic. The Democratic Party is spending money this year in an effort to increase their turnout.