Court rejects ‘belated’ PA GOP lawsuit over overseas ballot audit

A Pennsylvania federal court on Tuesday rejected a lawsuit by several Republican members of Congress who wanted overseas newsletters put aside in critical fluctuating state for additional scrutiny and potential exclusion from Elections November 5 results.

Republicans, who filed the lawsuit Sept. 30, 36 days before the election, asked the court to order Pennsylvania county election officials to segregate out-of-state ballots for possible exclusion and create new audit procedures. Judge Christopher Conner, an appointee of President George W. Bush, said congressmen themselves had failed to “fully work out” the new vetting procedures they wanted, even three weeks after the trial began.

Such a court ruling “at this late hour would upend the Commonwealth’s carefully crafted election procedures, harming countless thousands of voters, not to mention the state and county administrators who are expected to implement these new procedures in addition to their current ones.” responsibilities”, Conner wrote.

The lawsuit was part flurry of legal problems determine election procedures in the final weeks before Election Day. Judges in Georgia also last minute rule changes blocked from taking effect there on the eve of Election Day.

Republicans wanted Pennsylvania county election officials to verify whether an absentee ballot application met all registration requirements by reviewing the application, the county registry or “any other source,” Conner said. They argued that Pennsylvania exempted overseas voting applications from some federal verification requirements.

Democrats defending the lawsuit said Republicans sought to disenfranchise “tens of thousands of Pennsylvanians serving in the military or living overseas” without any evidence that invalid ballots were ever cast.

“The fact that the plaintiffs brought their case at the last minute cannot be explained by the laws and regulations they challenge, since they have already been in force for almost twelve years“, they said in filing a lawsuit convincing Conner to drop the case.

Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt, a Republican, also called on Conner to dismiss the case.

The plaintiffs say they “provide no basis for filing this lawsuit at the eleventh hour—after voting has already begun for the 2024 general election and after more than 25,000 ballots have been mailed to voters overseas.” its brief information supported the dismissal.

Five Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania districts—Guy Reschenthaler, Dan Mazer, Glenn “GT” Thompson, Lloyd Smucker and Mike Kelly—originally filed the lawsuit. Pennsylvania GOP Rep. Scott Perry was later added as an additional plaintiff.

Lawyers for the congressmen and Schmidt did not immediately respond to requests for comment.