Pennsylvania GOP lawmakers’ lawsuit against voter access initiatives dismissed by judge

A federal court on Tuesday threw out a lawsuit filed by a group of Republican lawmakers claiming that the governor and President Joe Biden skirted the legislature’s authority to expand voter access in Pennsylvania.

In January, state Republicans filed the suit against Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA), Biden, and state election officials, claiming that their attempts to increase voter access required legislative approval, which they did not get, the Pennsylvania Capital Star reported. But on Tuesday, a U.S. district judge dismissed the suit, claiming that the lawsuit had no legal standing, according to the Associated Press.

The lawsuit challenged Biden’s 2021 executive order that prompted federal agencies to consider steps to promote voter access. The executive order violates a law the state passed the following year that prohibited third-party organizations from funding state elections, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit also contested Shapiro’s 2023 executive order that enabled automatic voter registration in Pennsylvania and former Gov. Tom Wolf’s directive, prohibiting voter registrations from being denied if an applicant’s driver’s license or Social Security number did not match what was in the government’s database, the outlet reported.

Rep. Dawn Keefer, the head of the state’s Freedom Caucus and lead plaintiff in the lawsuit, said in a statement that the governor, Biden, and the Pennsylvania Department of State had “unconstitutionally” left state lawmakers out of the process of regulating elections, a right she claims uniquely belongs to the legislature.

“The citizens of Pennsylvania have been victimized by extraordinary overreach of executive officials who have made changes to election laws with no authority to do so,” Keefer said. “If we don’t take action to stop this, there is no limit to the changes they might make to further erode Pennsylvania’s election system in 2024 and beyond.”

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Shapiro, who called the lawsuits frivolous, said in a statement, “Automatic voter registration is safe, secure, efficient, and entirely within my Administration’s authority.”

The lawsuit comes as Republican lawmakers in several swing states are attempting to regulate voting requirements and thwart private funding to administer elections ahead of the November general election.