Pennsylvania Republicans lose effort to set aside overseas ballots for screening

A Pennsylvania federal court on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit from several Republican members of Congress who wanted overseas ballots set aside in the crucial swing state for extra vetting and potential exclusion from the Nov. 5 election results.

The Republicans – who filed the lawsuit Sept. 30, 36 days before the election – asked the court to direct Pennsylvania county election boards to segregate overseas ballots for possible exclusion and to create new verification procedures. Judge Christopher Conner, a President George W. Bush appointee, said the congressmen themselves weren't able to "fully flesh out" the new verification procedures they wanted, even three weeks into the lawsuit.

Such a court order "at this late hour would upend the Commonwealth’s carefully laid election administration procedures to the detriment of untold thousands of voters, to say nothing of the state and county administrators who would be expected to implement these new procedures on top of their current duties," Conner wrote.

The lawsuit was part of a flurry of legal challenges to state election procedures in the final weeks before Election Day. Judges in Georgia have also blocked last-minute rule changes from going into effect there ahead of Election Day.

The Republicans wanted Pennsylvania county election officials to ascertain whether an absentee ballot application had all the qualifications to register by looking to the application, a district register, or "any other source," according to Conner. They claimed Pennsylvania had exempted overseas ballot applications from certain federal verification requirements.

Democrats defending against the lawsuit said the Republicans were seeking to disenfranchise "tens of thousands of Pennsylvanians serving in the military or residing overseas" without any evidence that invalid ballots had ever been submitted.

"The last-minute nature of plaintiffs’ challenge cannot be attributed to the laws and guidance they challenge, since those have been in place for nearly twelve years," they said in a court filing urging Conner to dismiss the case.

Secretary of Pennsylvania Al Schmidt, a Republican, also urged Conner to dismiss the case.

The plaintiffs don't "provide any reason for bringing this action at the eleventh hour—after voting in the 2024 General Election has already commenced and after over 25,000 overseas ballots have been sent to voters," according to his brief supporting the dismissal.

Five Republican U.S. House members from Pennsylvania districts – Guy Reschenthaler, Dan Meuser, Glenn “G.T.” Thompson, Lloyd Smucker, and Mike Kelly – originally brought the lawsuit. Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Scott Perry was later added as an additional plaintiff.

"It is particularly egregious that sitting members of Congress participated in this frivolous action, which the Court correctly found was based on 'phantom fears,'" Matt Heckel, a spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Department of State, said in a statement.

"This case was little more than a last-minute attempt to sow doubt and upend the smooth running of Pennsylvania’s elections, and the Court correctly rejected it," Heckel said.

Lawyers for the congressmen didn't respond to a request for comment.

This story has been updated with additional information.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Court rejects 'late' PA Republican lawsuit on overseas ballot vetting