A Michigan judge on Monday rejected a Republican effort to set aside the ballots of some out-of-state voters who cast ballots in the Midwest’s key battleground.
Judge Sima Patel wrote that the Republican effort came too close to Election Day, calling it an “eleventh-hour attempt to disenfranchise voters,” including the families of those “who serve our country in the armed forces and diplomatic corps.” .
“The federal government is requiring states to allow absentee uniformed service and overseas voters, as well as their spouses and dependents, to register and vote,” Patel wrote.
Patel’s order came after an emergency hearing was held last Thursday, just nine days after the Republican Party of Michigan and the Republican National Committee filed the lawsuit against Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson. The lawsuit challenged instructions that allowed spouses and adult children of overseas Michigan residents to vote in the state as long as they are not registered elsewhere.
A lawyer for the state last week called the lawsuit “simply without legal merit,” but said that even if that were not the case, it is too close to the election to make the changes Republicans want.
Michigan, which has 15 electoral votes, is one of seven battleground states that could be decisive in the race for the White House, adding weight to the legal battle for foreign voters.
The court’s arguments focused on the children and spouses of military, diplomatic and other military personnel abroad. Lawyers for the Republican Party argued that the rules allow people to cast votes in Michigan even if they have never lived there. Patel seemed skeptical during the hearing.
As GOP attorney Jonathan Koch argued that the party’s interpretation of the law does not “punish” service members who move abroad, Patel interrupted to ask whether, in fact, the opposite was true.
“Isn’t your interpretation punishing the spouses and dependent children who may have been born abroad and came of age and reached the age of 18 abroad?” Patel asked Koch. “Are there no punishments for the children of foreign soldiers?”
“I don’t think I would use the word ‘criminalize,’” he said.
“It’s your word,” Patel said, laughing.
The lawsuit asked Patel to order Benson’s office to “segregate the ballots of out-of-state voters who have never lived in Michigan, including the ballots of out-of-state voters… [to] determine the extent of the constitutional violation and whether it exists [a]affects the outcome of the election.”
Benson’s office also asked for sanctions against the attorneys who filed the suit, which her office called “frivolous.” Patel denied that request.
The case is one of several filed in recent weeks by Republican lawyers in Michigan, Pennsylvania and North Carolina challenging the legitimacy of some foreign ballots. This effort prompted a group of Democrats in Congress to write a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on October 11, asking him to ensure that “overseas service members and Americans abroad maintain their right to fully participate in the US elections.”
