Overseas voting has emerged as a new focal point in Republicans’ legal battles ahead of the election. This week, judges in the key battleground states of Michigan and Pennsylvania reviewed Republican claims that officials are wrongly accepting thousands of overseas ballots, potentially allowing for fraud.
In North Carolina, a judge is set to hold a hearing on Monday for a similar case. State election officials are pushing back, arguing that they are following legal procedures and cautioning that these lawsuits are part of a larger effort to lay the groundwork for post-election disputes. Although overseas ballots represent a small portion of voters — with around 890,000 counted nationwide in 2020, according to the federal Election Assistance Commission — they could have a significant impact, especially as polls show a close presidential race in key battleground states with just over two weeks until Election Day.
These new legal challenges arise as this voting group — which includes uniformed service members stationed abroad, their families, and U.S. citizens living overseas — is seen as leaning more Democratic. Federal data indicates that in recent election cycles, overseas citizens have made up a larger share of this bloc than military ballots.
Now, both political parties are vying for support from this group of overseas voters. In August, the Democratic National Committee announced its first-ever six-figure investment aimed at boosting turnout among these voters. Last week, Trump introduced a campaign proposal to eliminate double taxation for Americans living abroad.
At the same time, Trump is claiming, without evidence, that Democrats are using overseas ballots for widespread election fraud. He frequently accuses Democrats of large-scale voting fraud, despite a lack of evidence. “The Democrats are talking about how they’re working so hard to get millions of votes from Americans living overseas.
Actually, they are getting ready to CHEAT!” Trump wrote on Truth Social last month. Cleta Mitchell, a lawyer involved in Trump’s efforts to challenge the 2020 election results, echoed these concerns in a post on X, saying, “This is a VERY big problem that a GOP Congress with a Pres Trump must fix next year.” Under the federal Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA), states must allow eligible Americans living abroad to vote absentee, including by accepting a postcard application for voter registration and ballot requests.
However, Republican lawsuits in North Carolina and Michigan argue that election officials are extending these voting protections to individuals who don’t fall under UOCAVA’s guidelines.
In both states, overseas citizens who have never lived there can vote as long as they aren’t registered elsewhere and their parents or guardians were eligible voters in that state.
On Thursday, Michigan Judge Sima Patel held a nearly 90-minute hearing on the Republicans’ lawsuit, noting that their “biggest hurdle” might be the delay in filing the case. Brandon Debus, a lawyer for the Michigan Republican Party, explained to the judge that these issues had only recently come to light.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Conner, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, held a hearing Friday on the Republicans’ request for an order blocking the state’s guidance. The Democratic National Committee (DNC) and its state arm are attempting to intervene to defend Schmidt. The DNC and Schmidt’s office both asserted the congressmen have no legal standing and that they waited too long to bring their lawsuit.
John Jones, the former chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, commented during a briefing last week that this case is “emblematic” of the types of lawsuits he handled during the 2020 election, which he felt were intended to suppress voters. “My opinion is that one of the challenges Judge Conner will likely face in this case is understanding why it was filed so late, considering this information presumably existed beforehand,” said Jones, who now serves as president of Dickinson College.
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