AP
Republican lawsuits target rules for overseas voters, but those ballots are already sent
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Voters today have some options in terms of how they vote and when they vote, and the main choices are voting in person at a polling place on Election Day, voting early in person before Election Day, or voting by mail.Read More
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FILE – Dawn Stephens, right, and Duane Taylor prepare ballots to be mailed at the Mecklenburg County Board of Elections in Charlotte, N.C., Sept. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Nell Redmond, File)
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FILE – An official Pennsylvania mail-in ballot is pictured in Pittsburgh, Oct. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)
BY CHRISTINA A. CASSIDY AND NICHOLAS RICCARDIUpdated 10:24 AM GMT+6, October 14, 2024Share
ATLANTA (AP) — The latest method of voting to fall into the political crosshairs is the way overseas voters — including members of the military stationed abroad — cast their ballots.
The process is governed by federal law and implemented by states. In recent weeks, Republicans have been challenging how states handle these voters, something former President Donald Trump didn’t 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 tight 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 should Trump lose.
Ballots already have been sent to overseas and military voters under a federally mandated deadline. Trump and his Republican allies contend 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 the voters who receive the ballots are increasingly from groups that are presumed to be Democratic.
Here’s a look at the issues involved and what’s driving 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 family 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, according to the commission. But that has shifted slightly. In 2020, overseas citizens accounted for 57.4% of the registered voters. Overall, 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 be turning on the program. While military voters are presumed to vote for the GOP, other overseas voters are widely assumed to lean Democratic. This year, for the first time, the Democratic Party is spending money to try to turn them out.
The Federal Voting Assistance Program, which supports military and overseas voters, estimates that 2.8 million U.S. citizens of voting age were living overseas in 2022.
Election officials who receive their applications “do everything they can to verify that these are eligible voters and not just persons without any kind of identification,” said Election Assistance Commission member Christy A. McCormick.
How do overseas voters register and cast ballots?
Federal law allows qualified military or overseas voters to register to vote and request an absentee ballot at the same time, using what is known as the federal postcard application, which can be submitted electronically in many states. This is aimed at addressing the challenges military and overseas voters can face, such as slow or even unavailable mail delivery. Other accommodations include requiring states to have a system for delivering ballots electronically.
The federal postcard application asks applicants to provide their name, address, birth date, Social Security number and driver’s license. That information is logged and checked based on state procedures, according to Tammy Patrick, a former election official with the National Association of Election Officials.
“It’s not the case that anyone in the world can apply for a ballot. They still have to demonstrate they are an eligible American citizen,” she said.
Each person completing the form must also sign an oath under penalty of perjury that the information is correct, that they are a U.S. citizen, that they are not disqualified from voting and are not requesting a ballot or voting in any other jurisdiction in the U.S.
Unlike other voters, overseas voters can use an address where they have not lived for several years.
All but 13 states allow U.S. citizens born overseas but who have never lived in the U.S. to register and vote using a parent’s 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 is asking a federal judge to order county elections officials to verify the identity and eligibility of military and overseas voters. They also want ballots cast by those voters to be kept apart from other ballots for the Nov. 5 election.
The lawsuit claims current practices have created “an illegally structured election process which makes Pennsylvania’s elections vulnerable to ineligible votes by individuals or entities who could purport to be UOCAVA-eligible.”
Out of 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 argue that Michigan and North Carolina should not be allowing overseas voters who have never lived in their state to vote.
Why are these claims being raised now?
The warnings about overseas ballot fraud join a very long list of Trump allegations of rampant fraud in U.S. elections, even though there has been no evidence of any widespread fraud. Reviews, recounts and audits in the battleground states where Trump disputed his 2020 loss all affirmed 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 huge numbers of non-citizens vote, that mail ballots are forged and that voting machines are secretly programmed against him. The goal has been to sow doubt about the reliability of any election he loses, enabling him to try to overturn his defeat.
Politically, Trump has tried to distinguish between military voters, who traditionally vote Republican, and other overseas voters. The Democratic Party in August announced it planned to spend about $300,000 trying to turn out overseas voters on behalf of Harris, its first expenditure on that group.
“They want to dilute the TRUE vote of our beautiful military and their families,” Trump claimed of Democrats in a Sept. 23 post on his social media network.
It’s likely, though, that challenges to these voters would carry consequences for both groups, including the military voters that Republicans routinely count on to pad their totals in close elections.
A spokesperson for the Republican National Committee said the litigation is aimed at preventing unlawful votes from diluting lawful ones.
“The point of the election integrity lawsuits is to fix the holes that we know exist as much as possible before the election,” RNC spokesperson Claire Zunk said.
What do election officials say?
With less than a month before the Nov. 5 election, now is not the time to raise objections to 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 the rules for voter eligibility is well before an election, not after votes have already been cast.”
In Michigan, the relevant state laws and procedures also have been on the books for years, according to state election officials. A state law passed in 1995 says a spouse or dependent of an overseas voter who is a U.S. citizen can register using their parent’s or spouse’s Michigan address.
State election officials said local offices follow standard procedures to check the identity of all those seeking to register to vote in Michigan. That includes military and overseas voters, who are required to renew their status every year. Their ballots also are subject to the same checks as those cast by non-military and overseas voters, including signature verification.
“This is not a legitimate legal concern — just the latest in the RNC’s PR campaign to spread unfounded distrust in the integrity of our elections,” said Angela Benander, spokeswoman for the Michigan secretary of state’s office.
In Pennsylvania, ballots cast by ineligible voters occur at “extremely low” rates and are investigated, said Matt Heckel, spokesman for the state election office. Heckel said anyone who lies on the form faces substantial penalties, including a potential felony conviction, prison sentence and fine.
The Democratic National Committee has filed a motion to dismiss the Pennsylvania case.
“Plaintiffs’ inexcusably belated request for relief in the middle of an election would create chaos for election administration, confuse voters and potentially disenfranchise tens of thousands of eligible Pennsylvanians who wear their nation’s uniform or are otherwise living overseas,” the DNC said in its brief.
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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.
AP
The final day of voting in the US is here, after tens of millions have already cast their ballots
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People stand in line during the last day of early voting, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)Read More
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Voters line up to vote as a early voting location opened in Carmel, Ind., Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
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A person walks past a sign during early voting in the general election, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024, in Fall River, Mass. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
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An election worker demonstrates mail-in ballot processing during a media preview at the Philadelphia Election Warehouse, in Philadelphia, Friday, Oct. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
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A voter fills out their their ballot during early voting in the general election, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024, in Fall River, Mass. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
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People line up to vote at the Chicago Early Voting Loop Supersite in Chicago, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
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Bennett College student Zairen Jackson listens to a fellow student answer a question during a roundtable in Greensboro, N.C., Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)
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FILE – A Delaware County secured drop box for the return of vote-by-mail ballots is pictured, May 2, 2022, in Newtown Square, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)
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An elections official sorts counted mail-in ballots on the first day of tabulation, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024, at the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Matt York)
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People wait in line to cast their ballots at an early voting location, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024, in Blue Springs, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
BY CHRISTINA A. CASSIDY AND ALI SWENSONUpdated 11:05 AM GMT+6, November 5, 2024
WASHINGTON (AP) — Election Day 2024 arrived Tuesday — with tens of millions of Americans having already cast their ballots. Those include record numbers in Georgia, North Carolina and other battleground states that could decide the winner.
The early turnout in Georgia, which has flipped between the Republican and Democratic nominees in the previous two presidential elections, has been so robust — over 4 million voters — that a top official in the secretary of state’s office said the big day could look like a “ghost town” at the polls.
As of Monday, Associated Press tracking of advance voting nationwide showed roughly 82 million ballots already cast — slightly more than half the total number of votes in the presidential election four years earlier. That’s driven partly by Republican voters, who were casting early ballots at a higher rate than in recent previous elections after a campaign by former President Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee to counter the Democrats’ longstanding advantage in the early vote.
That included in the parts of western North Carolina hammered last month by Hurricane Helene. State and local election officials, benefiting from changes made by the Republican-controlled legislature, pulled off a herculean effort to ensure residents could cast their ballots as they dealt with power outages, lack of water and washed out roads.
By the time early voting in North Carolina had ended on Saturday, over 4.4 million voters — or nearly 57% of all registered voters in the state — had cast their ballots. As of Monday, turnout in the 25 western counties affected by the hurricane was even stronger at 59% of registered voters, state election board Executive Director Karen Brinson Bell said.
Brinson Bell called the voters and election workers in the hurricane-hit counties “an inspiration to us all.”
Besides the hurricanes in North Carolina and Florida, the most worrisome disruptions to the election season so far were arson attacks that damaged ballots in two drop boxes near the Oregon-Washington border. Authorities there were searching for the person responsible.
The absence of any significant, widespread problems has not stopped Trump, the Republican nominee, or the RNC, which is now under his sway, from making numerous claims of fraud or election interference during the early voting period, a possible prelude to challenges after Election Day.
He has mischaracterized an investigation underway in Pennsylvania into roughly 2,500 potentially fraudulent voter registration applications by saying one of the counties was “caught with 2600 Fake Ballots and Forms, all written by the same person.” The investigation is into registration applications; there is no indication that ballots are involved.
In Georgia, Republicans sought to prohibit voters from returning mailed ballots to their local election office by the close of polls on Election Day, votes that are allowed under state law. A judge rejected their lawsuit over the weekend.
Trump and Republicans also have warned about the possibility that Democrats are recruiting masses of noncitizens to vote, a claim they have made without evidence and that runs counter to the data, including from Republican secretaries of state. Research has consistently shown that noncitizens registering to vote is rare. Any noncitizen who does faces the potential of felony charges and deportation, a significant disincentive.
One case of noncitizen voting was caught during early voting last month and resulted in felony charges in Michigan after a student from China cast an illegal early ballot.
This is the first presidential vote since Trump lost to Joe Biden four years ago and began various attempts to circumvent the outcome and remain in power. That climaxed with the violent Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol to halt certification of the results after Trump told his supporters to “fight like hell.”
Even now, a solid majority of Republicans believe Trump’s lie that Biden was not legitimately elected, despite reviews, audits and recounts in the battleground states that all affirmed Biden’s win. A survey last month from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research showed Republicans remain much more skeptical than Democrats that their ballots will be counted accurately this year.
Seeking to rebuild voter confidence in a system targeted with false claims of widespread fraud, Republican lawmakers in more than a dozen states since 2020 have passed new voting restrictions. Those rules include shortening the window to apply or return a mail ballot, reducing the availability of ballot drop boxes and adding ID requirements.
On the last weekend before Election Day, Trump continued to falsely claim the election was being rigged against him and said a presidential winner should be declared on election night, before all the ballots are counted.
Vice President Kamala Harris urged voters not to fall for Trump’s tactic of casting doubt on elections. The Democratic nominee told supporters at a weekend rally in Michigan that the tactic was intended to suggest to people “that if they vote, their vote won’t matter.” Instead, she urged people who had already cast ballots to encourage their friends to do the same.
Through four years of election lies and voting-related conspiracy theories, local election officials have faced harassment and even death threats. That has prompted high turnover and led to heightened security for election offices and polling sites that includes panic buttons and bullet-proof glass.
While there have been no major reports of any malicious cyberactivity affecting election offices, foreign actors have been active in using fake social media profiles and websites to drum up partisan vitriol and disinformation. In the final weeks, U.S. intelligence officials have attributed to Russia multiple fake videos alleging election fraud in presidential swing states.
On the eve of Election Day, they issued a joint statement with federal law enforcement agencies warning that Russia in particular was ramping up its influence operations, including in ways that could incite violence, and likely would continue those efforts well after the votes have been cast.
Jen Easterly, the nation’s top election security official, urged Americans to rely on state and local election officials for information about elections.
“This is especially important as we are in an election cycle with an unprecedented amount of disinformation, including disinformation being aggressively peddled and amplified by our foreign adversaries at a greater scale than ever before,” she said. “We cannot allow our foreign adversaries to have a vote in our democracy.”
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The Associated Press receives support from several private foundations to enhance its explanatory coverage of elections and democracy. See more about AP’s democracy initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Swenson reports on election-related misinformation, disinformation and extremism for The Associated Press.
AP
Georgia high court says absentee ballots must be returned by Election Day, even in county with delay
Updated 5:13 AM GMT+6, November 5, 2024
ATLANTA (AP) — Thousands of voters in Georgia’s third-largest county who received their absentee ballots late will not get an extension to return them, the state’s highest court decided on Monday.
Cobb County, just north of Atlanta, didn’t mail out absentee ballots to some 3,400 voters who had requested them until late last week. Georgia law says absentee ballots must be received by the close of polls on Election Day. But a judge in a lower court ruled last week that the ballots at issue could be counted if they’re received by this Friday, three days after Election Day, as long as they were postmarked by Tuesday.
The Georgia Supreme Court ruling means the affected Cobb County residents must vote in person on Election Day, which is Tuesday, or bring their absentee ballots to the county elections office by 7 p.m. that day.
The high court ruling instructs county election officials to notify the affected voters by email, text message and in a public message on the county election board’s website. And it orders officials to keep separate and sealed any ballots received after the Election Day deadline but before 5 p.m. Friday.
Board of elections Chair Tori Silas said the board will comply with the Supreme Court order, but it’s still up in the air whether ballots received after Election Day will be counted. The order only addressed a motion for a stay, so election officials will have to wait for the court’s final ruling to see whether votes received after Tuesday will be counted, she said in a statement.
To deliver the ballots on time, election officials in Cobb County were using U.S. Postal Service express mail and UPS overnight delivery, and sending the ballots with prepaid express return envelopes. The Board of Elections said that more than 1,000 of the absentee ballots being mailed late were being sent to people outside of Georgia.
Silas last week blamed the delay in sending out the ballots on faulty equipment and a late surge in absentee ballot requests during the week before the Oct. 25 deadline.
The original ruling extending the deadline stemmed from a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Southern Poverty Law Center on behalf of three Cobb County voters who said they had not received absentee ballots by mail as of Friday.
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Elon Musk is pledging to give away $1 million a day to voters for signing his political action committee’s petition backing the Constitution. The giveaway by the Donald Trump supporter is raising questions among some who say it’s a violation of the law.Read More
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America PAC lawyer Chris Gober speaks with members of the media ahead of a hearing at a City Hall courtroom in Philadelphia, Monday, Nov. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
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Elon Musk speaks before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally at Madison Square Garden, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
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Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner arrives for a hearing at a City Hall courtroom, in Philadelphia, Monday, Nov. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
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America PAC lawyer Chris Gober speaks with members of the media ahead of a hearing at a City Hall courtroom in Philadelphia, Monday, Nov. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
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Elon Musk speaks before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally at Madison Square Garden, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
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Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, third from right, arrives for a hearing at a City Hall courtroom, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
BY MARYCLAIRE DALEUpdated 4:19 AM GMT+6, November 5, 2024Share
Follow live: Updates from AP’s coverage of the presidential election.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The $1 million-a-day voter sweepstakes that Elon Musk ‘s political action committee is hosting in swing states can continue through Tuesday’s presidential election, a Pennsylvania judge ruled Monday.
Common Pleas Court Judge Angelo Foglietta — ruling after Musk’s lawyers said the winners are paid spokespeople and not chosen by chance — did not immediately explain his reasoning.
District Attorney Larry Krasner, a Democrat, had called the process a scam “designed to actually influence a national election” and asked that it be shut down.
Musk lawyer Chris Gober said the final two recipients before Tuesday’s presidential election will be in Arizona on Monday and Michigan on Tuesday.
“The $1 million recipients are not chosen by chance,” Gober said Monday. “We know exactly who will be announced as the $1 million recipient today and tomorrow.”
Chris Young, the director and treasurer of America PAC, testified that the recipients are vetted ahead of time, to “feel out their personality, (and) make sure they were someone whose values aligned” with the group.
Musk’s lawyers, defending the effort, called it “core political speech” given that participants sign a petition endorsing the U.S. Constitution. They also said Krasner’s bid to shut it down under Pennsylvania law was moot because there would be no more Pennsylvania winners before the program ends Tuesday.
Young also acknowledged that the PAC made the recipients sign nondisclosure agreements.
“They couldn’t really reveal the truth about how they got the money, right?” Summers asked.
“Sounds right,” Young said.
In an Oct. 20 social media post shown in court, Musk said anyone signing the petition had “a daily chance of winning $1M!”
Summers grilled him on Musk’s use of both the words “chance” and “randomly,” prompting Young to concede the latter was not “the word I would have selected.”
Young said the winners knew they would be called on stage but not specifically that they would win the money.
Musk did not attend the hearing. He has committed more than $70 million to the super PAC to help Trump and other Republicans win in November.
“This was all a political marketing masquerading as a lottery,” Krasner testified Monday. “That’s what it is. A grift.”
Lawyers for Musk and the PAC said they do not plan to extend the lottery beyond Tuesday. Krasner said the first three winners, starting on Oct. 19, came from Pennsylvania in the days leading up to the state’s Oct. 21 voter registration deadline.
Other winners came from the battleground states of Wisconsin, Nevada, Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina and Michigan. It’s not clear if anyone has yet received the money. The PAC pledged they would get it by Nov. 30, according to an exhibit shown in court.
More than 1 million people from the seven states have registered for the sweepstakes by signing a petition saying they support the right to free speech and to bear arms, the first two amendments to the U.S. Constitution. Krasner questioned how the PAC might use their data, which it will have on hand well past the election.
“They were scammed for their information,” Krasner said. “It has almost unlimited use.”
Krasner’s team called Musk “the heartbeat of America PAC,” and the person announcing the winners and presenting the checks.
“He was the one who presented the checks, albeit large cardboard checks. We don’t really know if there are any real checks,” Summers said.
Foglietta presided over the case at Philadelphia City Hall after Musk and the PAC lost an effort to move it to federal court.
Krasner has said he could still consider criminal charges, as he’s tasked with protecting both lotteries and the integrity of elections.
Pennsylvania remains a key battleground state with 19 electoral votes and both Trump and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris have repeatedly visited the state, including stops planned Monday in the final hours of the campaign.
Krasner — who noted that he has long driven a Tesla — said he could also seek civil damages for the Pennsylvania registrants. Musk is the CEO and largest shareholder of Tesla. He also owns the social media platform X, where America PAC has published posts on the sweepstakes, and the rocket ship maker SpaceX.
Dale covers national legal issues for The Associated Press, often focusing on the federal judiciary, gender law, #MeToo and NFL player concussions. Her work unsealing Bill Cosby’s testimony in a decade-old deposition led to his arrest and sexual assault trials.
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