Thousands of Pennsylvania ballots challenged in what state calls ‘bad-faith’ effort
By
Annabella Rosciglione
November 4, 2024 11:47 am
.
At least 4,000 overseas ballots in multiple Pennsylvania counties have been challenged by what appears to be right-wing activists just days ahead of the election.
At least 14 counties have received challenges seeking to invalidate mail ballots, in which the challenges claim there is evidence showing voters had moved overseas or had submitted a change-of-address request with the U.S. Postal Service. Neither scenario necessarily makes a voter ineligible to cast a ballot in Pennsylvania as the law states that a citizen of the United States living overseas can use the last state they lived in as their voting state.
The commonwealth of Pennsylvania is calling this a “bad-faith” coordinated challenge.
“Throughout the day on Friday, several bad-faith mass challenges were filed in a coordinated effort in counties across the Commonwealth to question the qualifications of thousands of registered Pennsylvania voters who applied to vote by mail ballot,” said Amy Gulli, a spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Department of State.
“These challenges are based on theories that courts have repeatedly rejected,” Gulli continued.
The bulk of the new challenges are claiming that because the voter lives outside of the U.S. and is not technically eligible to register as a Pennsylvania voter, they should not be eligible to vote, according to LancasterOnline. The 1986 Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, however, established that U.S. citizens and military personnel living overseas could continue to vote by absentee ballot in the state that they last lived in. They are known as “federal only” voters because these voters can participate only in federal races, such as the one for president, but not local races.
These challenges range from a dozen in Clinton County to more than 1,300 ballots in Bucks County. In Chester County, at least one county that has already held its hearing, the challenges were dismissed.
more
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/campaigns/state/3215429/thousands-pennsylvania-ballots-challenged-bad-faith-effort/