Veterans advocates are decrying recent Republican challenges to overseas voting laws, saying the moves could disenfranchise troops stationed outside the United States trying to cast their ballot in next month’s election.
In a media roundtable Friday morning, officials from the Vet Voice Foundation — which works closely with the Democratic Party — criticized lawsuits in Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Michigan filed by the Republican National Committee questioning the integrity of overseas ballots and suggesting that some could be fraudulent.
The Pennsylvania suit alleges that state officials have moved “to exempt [overseas voters] entirely from any verification requirements,” calling it “an illegally structured election process.”
Six Republican members of Congress from Pennsylvania signed onto the legal challenge. One of those, Rep. Guy Reschenthaler, said in a statement that the current process is “unlawfully diluting the rightful ballots of the brave men and women who serve our nation and their family members” by allowing questionable ballots.
Nearly 3 million U.S. citizens living abroad are eligible to vote in the November 2024 elections. Less than 4% of that total voted in the 2022 U.S. elections.
