Judge dismisses GOP lawmakers’ lawsuit over Pennsylvania’s overseas votes

A federal judge in Pennsylvania on Tuesday rejected a lawsuit from Republican congressmen seeking a more stringent verification process for overseas votes by U.S. citizens, including military officials.

Judge Christopher C. Conner of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania wrote: in a decision It was stated that council members and current re-election candidates did not have the right to sue, that they waited too long to file a lawsuit and that they failed to state a “valid cause of action” in the lawsuit.

Conner, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, added that lawmakers “have not provided a good excuse for waiting until just a month before the election to file this lawsuit” and that lawmakers have “hypothetical concerns” about the impact on their individuals. the elections were “purely speculative.”

The six Pennsylvania Republicans who filed the lawsuit include Reps. Guy Reschenthaler, Scott Perry, Dan Meuser, Glenn “GT” Thompson, Lloyd K. Smucker and Mike Kelly.

The case also raised the possibility that Iranian citizens could take advantage of the overseas voting process, marking an indictment for election interference. But the judge ruled that the indictment did not show any weaknesses on Pennsylvania’s part.

“Pressed for anything that would confirm ‘whether there was Iranian influence on Pennsylvania’s overseas ballots,’ the attorney acknowledged that all he effectively had were ‘concerns,'” Conner wrote in the 21-page ruling. Conner wrote.

“Plaintiffs cannot rely on imagined fears of stranger abuse to excuse their carelessness,” the federal judge wrote.

Republican lawmakers in the House of Representatives filed the lawsuit in Pennsylvania last month, asking in part that the court order election officials to segregate overseas ballots until the applicant’s eligibility and identity can be verified.

The judge on Tuesday called the Republican lawmakers’ requests “initially unsuccessful.”

“An action taken at this late hour would subvert the Commonwealth’s carefully established election administration procedures to the detriment of thousands of voters, to say nothing of state and county administrators who are expected to implement these new procedures in addition to their existing duties,” Conner wrote.

The Democratic National Committee and the Pennsylvania Democratic Party were allowed to intervene in the case.

The case drew harsh criticism from six House Democrats, who accused Republican lawmakers of trying to strip military members of their voting rights.

“These Americans who have raised their right hands and sworn an oath to support and defend the Constitution may be deprived of one of the most fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution,” six House lawmakers wrote in a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III. .