Judge Kills Pennsylvania Overseas Voter Identity Case

Pennsylvania election policies for overseas voters have created vulnerabilities that could lead to corruption according to a court case. With early voting underway, the Pennsylvania Department of State and six members of Congress have been in a legal battle over whether these voters’ identities should be verified before they are given a ballot.

But the case was dismissed Tuesday, at the request of Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt, not based on the merits of the case but because of timing. Plaintiffs “delayed too long to file their action, they lack standing, they have failed to join indispensable parties, and they have failed to articulate a viable cause of action,” Judge Christopher C. Conner of the U.S. Middle District Court of Pennsylvania said in his decision.

The case was brought by U.S. Reps. Guy Reschenthaler, Dan Meuser, Glenn “G.T.” Thompson, Lloyd Smucker, Mike Kelly, and Scott Perry, who joined the action later.

The case stems from guidance the state gave counties regarding the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA), a federal law that assures American citizens who are out of the country can still vote. Sometimes UOCAVA voters are called military voters because they used to be mostly military. But since 2014, nonmilitary voters have outpaced those in the military, data from the Election Administration and Voting Survey shows.

Voters who have lived outside the United States for years and are not sure if they will return may vote in Pennsylvania’s election.

This year, 32,711 UOCAVA voters have requested ballots in Pennsylvania as of Oct. 21.

Of those, 5,681, that is, just 17 percent, are military voters, according to data from the Pennsylvania Department of State.

The Pennsylvania Department of State has directed county election officials that they must register overseas voters who apply for voter registration, even if the county cannot verify the requester’s identity by matching a driver’s license or Social Security Number to the state databases, which is required by the federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA).

The congressmen challenged the Pennsylvania Department of State over the identity verification directive.

HAVA requires states to follow minimum standards when applicants seek voter registration for a federal election. The applicant must provide, at the time of registration, a valid driver’s license number. If the requester does not have a driver’s license, he may use the last four digits of his Social Security number. Applicants who do not have a driver’s license number or a Social Security number can be assigned a unique identifying number and verify their identity and voter eligibility using other approved documents.

But “[i]n direct conflict with federal and state law, Defendants Secretary of the
Commonwealth Al Schmidt or Deputy Secretary for Elections Johnathan Marks, or both, have issued directives and guidance to election officials to exempt UOCAVA applicants entirely from any verification requirements,” court papers say. “Without such a verification of UOCAVA voters, Pennsylvania elections could be subject to manipulation by foreign nations,” such as Iran.

The state argues the Federal Post Card Application (FPCA) available online doubles as both a voter registration application and an absentee application.

 “Voter registrations may not be rejected based solely on a non-match between the applicants’ identifying numbers on their application, and the comparison database numbers,” the directive reads. “Counties must ensure their procedures comply with state and federal law, which means that if there are no independent grounds to reject a voter registration application other than a non-match, the application may not be rejected and must be processed like all other applications.” If a county cannot verify that a voter is a U.S. citizen, or otherwise eligible to vote, the county must give the voter a ballot anyway, the state says.

The plaintiffs are considering appeal options and believe they would win if the case is considered on its merits, Attorney Erick G. Kaardal of the Election Research Institute told The Federalist Tuesday. Kaardal represents the plaintiffs.

“Pennsylvania counties have been inundated with fraudulent paper voter registration applications in the last several weeks. As of this morning, there have been more than 35,500 UOCAVA applications processed with absolutely no verification of identity or eligibility of the voter registration application information,” Kaardal said. “While the plaintiffs have always asserted that most UOCAVA applications are likely submitted by real people who provide the required identification — it is imperative that the PA Department of State follow the law and verify the identity and eligibility on the applications they have received.”

Interference from Iran

Members of Congress warned in the filing that “[a]s described in the US Department of Justice indictment, Iranian nationals, in efforts to interfere with U.S. elections, demonstrated that bad actors could easily create and submit falsified FPCAs in Pennsylvania’s November 5, 2024, federal elections.”

The U.S. Department of Justice unsealed an indictment on Sept. 27, 2024, of three members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) who hacked President Donald Trump’s campaign and hacked email addresses and the identities of high-level officials in the U.S. government from at least January 2020 to May 2024.

The DOJ announced that the activity “was part of Iran’s continuing efforts to stoke discord, erode confidence in the U.S. electoral process, and unlawfully acquire information relating to current and former U.S. officials that could be used to advance the malign activities of the IRGC, including ongoing efforts to avenge the death of Qasem Soleimani, the former commander of the IRGC,” who was killed by a drone strike in January 2020.

“Similarly, two Iranian nationals, who are currently wanted by the FBI, were charged with interfering in the 2020 election. The Iranians were charged with successfully breaching at least one statewide voter registration database and attempting to breach voter registration systems in eleven dozen other states,” the members of Congress said in their response to the defendants’ motion to dismiss. “Using data from their successful Alaska breach, they created thousands of fraudulent UOCAVA applications and federal write-in absentee ballots.”

“The IRGC has demonstrated a knowledge of the UOCAVA vulnerabilities and a willingness to violate the law to interfere in the 2024 election,” the plaintiffs’ response read. “Based on these facts,” they argued, there was “no inexcusable delay” in filing their complaint.

Judge Conner was not moved by this argument and dismissed the case without ruling on the UOCAVA issue.

For more election news and updates, visit electionbriefing.com.

Beth Brelje is an elections correspondent for The Federalist. She is an award-winning investigative journalist with decades of media experience.