“We are appealing both decisions in Michigan and North Carolina because the law in both states is clear: if you’ve never lived there, you can’t influence their elections,” RNC spokeswoman Claire Zunk told the Washington Examiner.

The separate state court decisions will allow people who have never lived in the United States but were born overseas to parents or guardians who were residents of the States to vote without having to provide additional documents proving their identity during the 2024 election between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Republican challengers worry that overseas ballots could be wrongly counted as swing state votes, prompting concerns that there will be no clear indication that the overseas voters actually have ties to North Carolina and other battlegrounds.

“We are fighting to protect every legal vote, including from military and overseas citizens, to not be canceled by ineligible votes,” Zunk added.

Judge Sima Patel of Michigan’s Court of Claims said the RNC filed the lawsuit too late, calling it an “11th-hour attempt to disenfranchise” spouses and children of former Michigan residents who now live abroad.

In North Carolina, the RNC’s request for an emergency court order to require election officials to set aside ballots from overseas voters who had not lived in the state was denied by Wake County Superior Court Judge John W. Smith.

Smith said there was “absolutely no evidence that any person has ever fraudulently claimed that exemption and actually voted in any North Carolina election.” 

A similar federal lawsuit was brought by GOP Pennsylvania Reps. Guy Reschenthaler, Dan Meuser, Glenn Thompson, Lloyd Smucker, Mike Kelly, and Scott Perry, all six of whom did not vote to certify the results of the 2020 election.

Legal experts have speculated that the Pennsylvania challenge will turn out similarly to the ones in Michigan and North Carolina, as the lawsuit was filed after state officials began sending out ballots to overseas voters. A ruling in that case is expected as early as this week.