Advocates for overseas military families, ex-pats are back on track with the GOP in favor of absentee ballots

Some ex-pats living overseas, including active duty service members and family members, sounded the alarm after Republicans in three swing states tried to delay accepting and counting overseas absentee ballots.

And there is already a fear among Americans at home and abroad that no matter what the outcome, the damage has been done, according to Sarah Streyder, executive director of the Secure Families Initiative, a nonpartisan nonprofit that supports the rights of military families. .

“We’ve heard from military voters from all over the country who feel they can’t participate, that they’re worried their ballots won’t be counted,” Streyder, who is stationed in the UK with her husband, a member of the Air Force, told reporters in a video news conference with other lawyers on Friday. .

Election officials and other political science experts say the lawsuits filed in Pennsylvania, Michigan and North Carolina in recent weeks are without merit. Republican plaintiffs, however, claim the state election office created a loophole that could have allowed ineligible people to vote through absentee ballots abroad.

GOP cast doubt on absentee ballots, election officials back off

On September 30, five Pennsylvania House GOP members running for re-election – Guy Reschenthaler, Dan Meuser, Glenn Thompson, Lloyd Smucker and Mike Kelly – filed a lawsuit against Al Schmidt, secretary of the Commonwealth and Deputy Secretary of Elections. Jonathan Marks accused him of instructing local election offices not to allow ID requirements for foreign absentee voters.

“The commonwealth’s practice is an illegally structured election process that makes Pennsylvania elections vulnerable to ineligible votes by individuals or entities that may be considered to be… without providing identification at any step of the process,” the plaintiffs in the Pennsylvania lawsuit said.

Reschenthaler is the only member of the five plaintiffs with military experience as he previously served as a United States Navy Solicitor General’s Corps attorney from 2009 to 2012, according to his bio. He was deployed to Iraq during his tenure as JAG.

The Pennsylvania Secretary of State’s office said in a statement that the lawsuit is “no more than an attempt to confuse and intimidate people before an important election,” and that state law guarantees that all overseas ballots sent out are eligible.

“Votes cast by ineligible voters occur at very low rates and are routinely investigated and prosecuted by the appropriate authorities when they occur. , prison sentences and substantial fines,” the office said in a statement.

Pennsylvania election officials could not immediately provide ABC News with data on how many absentee ballots have now been sent out of state and how many have been returned.

The Republican National Committee filed a pair of lawsuits in North Carolina and Michigan last week arguing that the state rules violate federal law and allow ex-pats to vote even if they have never lived in the state.

In both suits, RNC officials alleged that state election officials did not establish a secure system to verify that overseas voters are Americans and specifically cited provisions in election laws that allow spouses or dependents of military or overseas voters. vote in elections based on military residency or overseas voters.

“As a result, certain people who have never lived in Michigan (or possibly anywhere else in this country) are registering to vote and voting in Michigan elections,” the plaintiffs in the Michigan case said in a filing.

Similar language was used in the North Carolina lawsuit.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel filed an amicus brief this week to dismiss his state’s case, asserting that the plaintiffs are missing the point in their lawsuit.

“Challenging a decades-old statute in this reckless manner is irresponsible and violent. These actions are a clear attempt to cast doubt on the integrity of elections and suppress the legitimate vote of American citizens,” he said in a statement.

Nessel noted that absentee ballots had been mailed to Michigan voters living overseas, and that the RNC failed to file a timely notice to sue in the Michigan Court of Claims.

Patrick Gannon, a spokesman for the North Carolina State Board of Elections, echoed those sentiments and maintained that the state law allowing military family members to vote in the state is valid.

“North Carolina lawmakers adopted this law more than 13 years ago as a way to implement a federal law that requires the state to make voting more accessible to military families and other citizens living overseas. It has been a part of from the laws of our country for every election since then,” he said in a statement.

As of Friday afternoon, more than 22,000 Michigan military and overseas voters had requested ballots for the general election, according to data from the Michigan Secretary of State’s office. Of those, nearly 8,000 voters have completed and submitted their ballots to be counted, the data showed.

As of Friday afternoon, 8,451 North Carolina absentee ballots had been requested by members of the military and 20,571 ballots had been requested by civilians living overseas, according to data from the North Carolina State Board of Elections.

Of those requests, 8,331 ballots were mailed to military members and 2,434 were returned and accepted, the board said. There were 20,449 absentee ballots sent to other ex-pats, and 10,481 of those ballots were returned and accepted, according to the data.

Veterans, ex-pats are furious over the move

Ray Kimball, an Arizona veteran who volunteers for the nonpartisan advocacy group Veterans for All Voters, told reporters Friday he was outraged by allegations made by officials questioning the validity of absentee ballots in 2020.

Kimball, a former Pennsylvania voter who said he used to vote by mail while deployed overseas, said he was surprised that “partisan actors doubled down,” though there was no evidence to support his claims.

“I take this as a personal affront to what I and tens of thousands of Americans including service members and civilians overseas have done for years before this narrative,” he said.

One of the biggest concerns of legal experts and voters overseas is the request in all three lawsuits to separate absentee foreign ballots and stop counting them until the person can be verified.

Susan Dzieduszycka-Suinat, president and CEO of the US Vote Foundation, a non-profit group that provides former resources to help vote, told reporters that the move was made to “just reduce the number of ballots counted overall.”

“This is a complete disenfranchisement of US citizens,” said Dzieduszycka-Suinat, who lives in Munich. “We are US citizens. We have a secure voting process.”

Philadelphia City Commissioner Lisa Deeley told reporters that she is concerned that if the request is granted, it will create unnecessary work for already overtaxed election workers.

“All the time, energy and effort that goes into it, further erodes people’s confidence in elections,” he said.

Lawsuits are just the beginning: Experts

Michael Traugott, research professor emeritus at the Center for Political Studies at the University of Michigan, told ABC News that the three matches are part of a strategy by Republican leaders aimed at sowing doubt in the election results in the coming months.

He predicted the three lawsuits would be dismissed, especially in Michigan where he said the secretary of state’s office has been efficient in determining voter rights.

“They do it very carefully and systematically and it works,” he said.

Traugott said the election office will be prepared for the attack, but may not be able to control the public relations damage caused by the suit.

Kimball, however, said he believes that the majority of voters want more access to the right to cast ballots.

“The bottom line is that this should not be a partisan issue. We should consider the idea of ​​an American election everywhere in the world,” he said.