ATLANTA (AP) — The latest voting method to land in the political crosshairs is the way foreign voters — including military personnel stationed abroad — cast their ballots.
The process is governed by federal law and administered by the states. In recent weeks, Republicans have questioned how states handle these electors, something former President Donald Trump did not do in 2020 when he and his allies challenged his loss in court.
But things have changed, with just a month before Election Day and a close race between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. It’s part of a broader legal strategy by Republicans to position themselves for post-election challenges if Trump were to lose.
Ballots have already been mailed to overseas and military voters by a federally mandated deadline. Trump and his Republican allies claim these ballots could be part of an elaborate scheme to steal the election from him, a claim for which there is no evidence. Their challenge comes as voters receiving ballots increasingly come from groups perceived to be Democratic.
Here is an overview of the issues involved and the causes of the claims.
Who are these voters?
Congress passed a law in 1986 that was signed by then-President Ronald Reagan requiring states to allow certain groups of citizens to register and vote absentee in federal elections. Known as the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, or UOCAVA, it applies to military members, their families and U.S. citizens living outside the country.
In 2020, states sent more than 1.2 million ballots to military and overseas voters. Of those, more than 900,000 were returned and nearly 890,000 were counted, according to data collected by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.
Before 2016, military members and eligible family members represented most of these voters, the commission said. But that has shifted somewhat. In 2020, foreign citizens accounted for 57.4% of registered voters. In total, 40% of all military and overseas ballots were cast in three states: California, Florida and Washington.
That shift explains why Trump and other Republicans may enable the program. While military voters are believed to vote for the Republican Party, other overseas voters are widely believed to lean Democratic. This year, for the first time, the Democratic Party is spending money to take them out.
The Federal Voting Assistance Program, which supports military and overseas voters, estimates that 2.8 million U.S. citizens of voting age lived abroad in 2022.
Election officials who receive their applications “make every effort to verify that these are eligible voters and not simply individuals without any form of identification,” said Christy A. McCormick, a member of the Election Assistance Commission.
How do foreign voters register and cast their votes?
Federal law allows qualified military or overseas voters to register to vote and request an absentee ballot at the same time, using the so-called federal postcard application, which can be filed electronically in many states. This is aimed at addressing the challenges that military and overseas voters may face, such as slow or even unavailable mail delivery. Other changes include requiring states to have a system for casting ballots electronically.
The federal postcard application asks applicants to provide their name, address, date of birth, Social Security number and driver’s license. That information is recorded and verified based on state procedures, said Tammy Patrick, a former elections official with the National Association of Election Officials.
“It’s not like anyone in the world can request a ballot. They still have to prove that they are an eligible U.S. citizen,” she said.
Each person completing the form must also sign an oath under penalty of perjury that the information is correct, that he or she is a U.S. citizen, that he or she is not disqualified from voting, and that he or she is not seeking an vote or vote in any other jurisdiction in the US.
Unlike other voters, foreign voters can use an address where they have not lived for years.
In all but 13 states, U.S. citizens who were born abroad but never lived in the U.S. can register and vote at their parents’ last residential address, according to data collected by the Election Assistance Commission.
What are the Republicans’ claims?
In Pennsylvania, a group of Republican members of Congress are asking a federal judge to order county election officials to verify the identity and eligibility of military and foreign voters. They also want ballots cast by these voters to be kept separate from other ballots for the Nov. 5 election.
The lawsuit alleges that current practices have created “an illegally structured election process that leaves Pennsylvania elections vulnerable to ineligible votes from individuals or entities who may claim UOCAVA eligibility.”
Of the nearly 27,000 military and overseas ballots cast in Pennsylvania in 2020, 1,363 — or 5% — were rejected. That’s a higher rejection rate than all but one state, according to federal data.
The lawsuits filed by the Republican National Committee allege that Michigan and North Carolina would not be allowed to vote out-of-state voters who have never lived in their states.
Why are these claims being made now?
The warnings about voting fraud abroad join a very long list of Trump accusations of rampant fraud in the US elections, even though there is no evidence of any widespread fraud. Reviews, recounts and audits in battleground states where Trump contested his 2020 loss all confirmed President Joe Biden’s victory, and his own attorney general said there was no evidence of fraud that could have tipped the election.
Trump has claimed without evidence that large numbers of non-citizens vote, that ballots are forged and that voting machines are secretly programmed against him. The aim was to cast doubt on the reliability of the election he loses, allowing him to try to reverse his defeat.
Politically, Trump has tried to distinguish between military voters, who traditionally vote Republican, and other overseas voters. The Democratic Party announced in August that it planned to spend about $300,000 on efforts to sway overseas voters on Harris’ behalf, its first expenditure on that group.
“They want to dilute the TRUE voice of our beautiful military and their families,” Trump claimed about Democrats in a September 23 post on his social media network.
However, it is likely that the challenges to these voters will impact both groups, including the military voters that Republicans routinely count on to boost their totals in nearby elections.
A spokesperson for the Republican National Committee said the lawsuit is intended to prevent illegal votes from diluting legal votes.
“The purpose of the election integrity lawsuits is to close as much as possible the holes that we know exist before the election,” said RNC spokesperson Claire Zunk.
What do election officials say?
With less than a month before the Nov. 5 election, now is not the time to object to the state law that has been in place for 13 years, said Patrick Gannon, a spokesman for the North Carolina State Board of Elections.
“This lawsuit was filed after voting had already begun in North Carolina for the general election,” Gannon said in a statement. “The time to challenge voting eligibility rules is well before the election, not after votes have already been cast.”
In Michigan, the relevant state laws and procedures have also been on the books for years, state election officials said. A state law passed in 1995 allows a spouse or dependent of an out-of-state voter who is a U.S. citizen to register using their parent’s or spouse’s Michigan address.
Election officials said local offices are following standard procedures to verify the identity of anyone who wants to register to vote in Michigan. That includes military and foreign voters, who must renew their status every year. Their ballots are also subject to the same checks as those of non-military and overseas voters, including signature verification.
“This is not a legitimate legal concern — just the latest in the RNC’s public relations campaign to sow baseless distrust in the integrity of our elections,” said Angela Benander, spokeswoman for the Michigan Secretary of State’s office.
In Pennsylvania, ballots from ineligible voters are at an “extremely low rate” and are under investigation, said Matt Heckel, spokesman for the state elections office. Heckel said anyone who lies on the form faces significant penalties, including a possible misdemeanor conviction, jail time and fine.
The Democratic National Committee has filed a motion to dismiss the case in Pennsylvania.
“Plaintiffs’ inexcusably late request for relief in the middle of the election would create chaos for election administration, confuse voters, and potentially disenfranchise tens of thousands of eligible Pennsylvanians who wear their state’s uniform or otherwise live abroad,” the DNC said in his letter. .
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Riccardi reported from Denver. Associated Press writers Mark Scolforo in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and Julie Carr Smyth in Columbus, Ohio, contributed to this report.
