Judge weighs GOP request to verify eligibility of Pennsylvania's overseas and military voters
Source: AP
Updated 6:51 PM EDT, October 18, 2024
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A federal judge had some pointed questions but did not immediately rule Friday on a request that Pennsylvania election officials take new steps to verify the identification and eligibility of soldiers and others living overseas.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Conner corrected a lawyer for the six Republican members of Congress and the conservative voting organization who are suing when the lawyer called it “a pedestrian” case about federal laws preempting state law. “I would characterize it as creative,” Conner said near the end of about an hour and a half of an oral argument in the case that was filed late last month.
At issue are thousands of ballots in Pennsylvania, a pivotal swing state that could decide the presidential contest between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump. Conner asked why the plaintiffs “took so long” to file a complaint over procedures that have been in place for years and pressed the lawyers about whether their clients have the sort of injury required for such claims, something that affects them in an individual way.
The plaintiffs want Conner to declare current practices violate federal law and to have the two sides confer about how to verify the identity and eligibility of people casting votes this fall under the U.S. Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act. They also want overseas and military ballots segregated during the current election season until that added verification step takes place.
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/pennsylvania-voting-election-2024-military-overseas-ballots-6c13b923c2964fbce5dc7146c669e64d
Marc Elias' Democracy Docket BACKGROUND - https://www.democracydocket.com/cases/pennsylvania-overseas-voter-verification-challenge/
= new reply since forum marked as read
is that the GOP policy position of the past (magnified by the neocons), courted the military (including running Rash Limpballs on Armed Forces Radio, etc), and essentially (whether overtly or underhandedly) painting Democrats as "weak" and "unpatriotic".
But as Shrub's wars dragged on, you had a new generation of vets - many of who WERE Democrats.
And guess what they did?
Ran for office!!
I remember back in 2006, when Democrats first took the House back for the first time since 1995, where here in SE PA, we were able to flip a swing/reddish Congressional District (at the time numbered "PA-8", now the current "PA-1" ), with a young, soon-to-be-Obama-supporting Democrat - Patrick J. Murphy - who became the first Iraq War vet elected to Congress at the time. He was also one of the earliest and almost only (save for my own Congressman at the time - Chaka Fattah) to endorse Obama in 2008.
Murphy won a 2nd term in 2008, but was unfortunately caught in the 2010 Citizen's United massacre, and lost his seat. Brian Fitzpatrick (R) is there now. Murphy did eventually serve in the Obama Administration as an appointee in DOD (in the Dept. of the Army) during the last year of Obama's 2nd term.
Still... from that point on, more and more Iraq and Afghanistan War vets who were Democrats, were running for office AND WINNING. There were a bunch who were featured at the DNC.
So the GOP no longer has a "stranglehold" on the vets and active duty military, and are willing to literally "throw that baby out with the bath water" to get rid of any Democratic party votes from the bases. 
