Pennsylvania Secretary of State Prevents Counties from Verifying Overseas Voters

Pennsylvania Secretary of State directive opens election to foreign voter fraud

Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt ordered local election officials not to attempt to verify the identity of voter applicants from abroad to ensure they are eligible Americans. Pennsylvania Congressmen Guy Reschenthaler (R-14), Dan Meuser (R-9), Mike Kelly (R-16), Glenn Thompson (R-15), Lloyd Smucker (R-11), and Scott Perry (R-10) filed Reschenthaler v. Schmidt, on September 30, against Schmidt to force him to comply with federal law to ensure only eligible Americans vote.

Schmidt’s Department of State (DOS) directive instructs counties not even to try to determine if overseas non-military applications are valid and not to require identification before voting. Failure to verify information on applications for the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) ballots creates a vulnerability and provides bad actors the opportunity to submit fraudulent ballots. This dilutes the votes of military voters and could allow subversive foreign actors to sway the state’s elections. 

UOCAVA allows certain privileges for military members, their family members, and other non-military overseas American citizens who wish to vote. These include receiving their ballots 45 days before the election, receiving emailed ballots, and using printable emergency write-in ballots. The law meant to make it easier for Americans living abroad to cast a ballot, but it assumes Secretaries of State will do their jobs to make sure applicants are eligible voters.

(READ MORE: VOTER SUPPRESSION: Why are North Carolina Democrats Stopping Hurricane Helene Survivors from Voting Early?)

Do Voters Living Overseas Validate Their Identity?

The media often mislabels UOCAVA ballots as military, but most are cast by non-military overseas voters. In 2022, for instance, only 35% of UOCAVA ballots were from members of the military and their family members. Most come from Americans living abroad, but that still leaves room for shenanigans.

On Oct. 18, the Pennsylvania DOS argued to have the case dismissed for lack of standing. This is absurd, as Reschenthaler is a veteran, and all six Congressmen are incumbents up for reelection in Pennsylvania.

“This case is simple.” stated Reschenthaler. “The Pennsylvania Department of State is unlawfully diluting the rightful ballots of the brave men and women who serve our nation and their family members.”

The US Supreme Court has stated that the right to vote “can be denied by a debasement or dilution of the weight of a citizen's vote just as effectively as by wholly prohibiting the free exercise of the franchise.” (Reynolds v. Sims)

Schmidt argues that because the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) exempts UOCAVA voters from presenting a photocopy of their ID, he has the authority to prevent local officials from verifying in any way that voter applicants are eligible to vote.

Unlike the Motor Voter Act of 1993, HAVA does give states broad latitude to administer federal elections. But it also requires verification of identity and eligibility. It even requires them to match the applicant’s driver’s license number or Social Security number against information in official databases prior to voting in a federal election. 

Democrats oppose voter ID because they think it would disenfranchise poor people who don’t possess proper forms of identification—ridiculous on its face. But for these voters, there’s no excuse not to request voter ID. All military personnel are issued military IDs, and Americans living abroad must possess passports to be there.

The plaintiffs’ attorney Erick Kaardal emphasized that the current UOCAVA process under Schmidt means voters who register while living in Pennsylvania have to prove their identity, while those abroad do not.

Failure to verify voter applicants’ identity could open the door to American or foreign bad actors attempting to pass themselves off as American citizens living abroad. 

Ripe For Foreign Election Interference

Iranians have a recent track record of impersonating Americans and filling out UOCAVA registration forms, which makes the threat of fraud to Pennsylvania voters worse than domestic voter fraud.

Just 3 days before the Pennsylvania Congressmen filed their suit, the Department of Justice announced a new indictment related to Iran’s efforts to undermine the 2024 election. This comes three years after the DOJ indicted Iranian nationals who confirmed they’d successfully breached Alaska’s state voter registration system. 

The Alaska data breach, which the Iranians carried out in 2020, included the download of private voter data such as SSN numbers and driver’s license numbers—the exact data requested on UOCAVA registration forms—for more than 100,000 voters.

The Iranian hackers then created a video to demonstrate how they could exploit the vulnerabilities in the UOCAVA system by filling that data into the Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP) website. Although they don’t appear to have submitted the data to local elections offices, it proves that Iran can defraud the UOCAVA vote system when Secretaries of State don’t do their jobs.

As of the lawsuit’s filing on September 30, Pennsylvania counties had already transmitted over 25,000 UOCAVA ballots for the 2024 election, nearly 85% to email addresses. More than 12,000 were sent to applicants who indicated that they don’t intend to return to the U.S. By Oct. 21, nearly 33,000 had been sent, only 5,600 of which went to military and military family members. This marks a suspiciously drastic spike in non-military members using UOCAVA in Pennsylvania, 83 percent, compared with 65 percent in 2022.

The Congressmen plaintiffs are seeking a declaratory judgment that the Pennsylvania DOS directives violate HAVA. They are also seeking a Preliminary Injunction to the state’s top election officials to direct county election officials on the legally mandated procedures necessary to comply with federal and state law.

Congress passed UOCAVA with the understanding that Secretaries of State would act patriotically and honestly to secure elections and prevent bad actors from diluting their states’ citizens’ votes. When state officials like Schmidt abuse their office in a partisan manner, it harms not only military voters but everyone in the country during a presidential election.

(READ MORE: Lawsuit: Key Pennsylvania County Must Provide Paper Ballots to Voters in Major Election Integrity Victory)

 

 

Jacob Grandstaff is an Investigative Researcher for Restoration News. He graduated from the National Journalism Center in Washington, D.C.

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