30/10/24 update: Wonderful news: a judge has dismissed a suit brought by 6 Pennsylvania congressmen to suppress the votes of their own overseas constituents. Thanks go to everybody who fought this lawsuit, including the Brennan Center, who drafted an amicus brief on the case signed by multiple expat organizations, including FAWCO, and multiple overseas Pennsylvania voters, including a FAWCO member. Now all three such suits have failed. Get out there and vote, overseas Americans!
Representatives of one American political party have filed lawsuits in three swing states – Michigan, North Carolina and Pennsylvania – to disfranchise overseas voters, military and civilian. This appears to be part of a strategy to sow doubt about and potentially contest the results of the 2024 US elections. FAWCO and partner organizations are pushing back hard, signing a legal brief submitted in the Pennsylvania case. The suits in Michigan and North Carolina were dismissed as an “11th hour attempt to disenfranchise” voters and as presenting “no substantial evidence of the fraud they claimed they were trying to prevent”, respectively. Appeals of these decisions were promised, while the case in Pennsylvania continues.
All American FAWCO members can help to fight these outrageous attempts to strip away our hard-won rights and to defend the integrity of the 2024 election by:
- continuing to work flat out to help overseas Americans cast valid ballots in the election;
- contacting their elected Representatives and Senators to oppose these attempts to suppress the overseas vote; and
- spreading the news about this situation in your club and other networks, and publicizing and supporting the work of groups that are defending the integrity of US elections.
Get busy!
What happened
Strategy to suppress votes and cast doubt on election results
As overseas Americans in and outside the military have been requesting and returning ballots in order to vote in the 2024 US election, ABC News reports that:
Some ex-pats living abroad, including active-duty service members and their family members, are sounding the alarm after Republicans in three swing states have tried to delay accepting and counting overseas absentee ballots.
And there is already fear among Americans at home and abroad that no matter what the result, the damage has already been done …
Advocates fear that overseas turnout, which is already low, will be further depressed as a result. In addition, the lawsuits are seen as “part of a strategy … aimed at sowing doubt in the election results in the months to come.”
FAWCO and partners defend overseas voters and election integrity
As US Vote Foundation President and CEO Susan Dzieduszycka-Suinat explained on television, overseas Americans vote under a law signed by President Reagan in 1986, and fraud has never been alleged against them until now. The Washington Post pointed out that: “it’s notable that none of the three lawsuits mentions an example of an ineligible voter casting a ballot from overseas. … roughly 20,000 overseas voters from Michigan, Pennsylvania and North Carolina apiece cast ballots in the 2020 election.”
Stories from ABC News, CNN and the Washington Post describe efforts by a range of nonpartisan groups – representing military personnel and their families, civilian expats and overseas voting advocates – to push back against the lawsuits’ claims. Several of these groups joined together to sign a brief on the Pennsylvania lawsuit, submitted by the Brennan Center for Justice on October 18. Those signing include not only FAWCO but a range of its partners in supporting overseas voting (the US Vote Foundation) and in Overseas Americans Week (the Association of Americans Resident Overseas), as well as American Citizens Abroad and Blue Star Families (BSF) and individual Pennsylvania voters living overseas (including one FAWCO member).
The brief attacks the Pennsylvania lawsuit on three grounds:
“This lawsuit jeopardizes overseas citizens’ fundamental right to vote, subverting well-established federal policy.
Plaintiffs’ requested relief flies in the face of the public interest and risks silencing bona fide voters abroad in the upcoming election.
This action is part of a broader insidious strategy to leverage the courts to sow doubt, chaos, and confusion over the 2024 election.”
It says that the “Plaintiffs attempt to leverage this Court to launch a voter interference campaign of their own” that aims to single “out overseas ballots for extra scrutiny that would effectively disenfranchise American voters living abroad” and thus seek “unlawfully to silence the electoral voice of tens of thousands of military and civilian Pennsylvania voters currently stationed and living outside the United States, many of whom have dedicated their lives to service and civic duty and all of whose fundamental right to vote is entitled to special protections under federal law.” It urges the Court to “reject Plaintiffs’ efforts to undermine the 2024 General Election.”
What you can do
FAWCO members should be proud of the quick and impressive work done by our US Liaison and our partners to respond to this unjustified attack on overseas Americans’ constitutional right to vote. You can do more, however, as the lawsuits go through the courts.
As Chair of FAWCO’s US Voting Committee, I agree that these lawsuits are part of a strategy to cast doubt on and even challenge the results of the 2024 election. This is the 2024 version of the 2020 Big Lie. This is a frightening prospect, but action remains the best antidote to anxiety.
FAWCO members can help to fight these outrageous attempts to strip away our hard-won rights and to defend US democracy in the following ways.
- Keep working flat out to help overseas Americans cast valid ballots in the election. See other articles on US voting (like this one) for details.
- Contact your elected Representatives and Senators to communicate your opposition to these attempts to suppress the overseas vote; see details of how to do so here.
- Spread the news about this situation in your club and other networks, which includes publicizing and supporting the work of groups that are defending the integrity of US elections.
In particular, recommended action in a citizen’s guide to defending the 2024 election published by The Atlantic includes supporting organizations that respond to challenges to the election and take part in the battle in both the courts and the media. You can do this by subscribing to their newsletters, donating money to them and sharing their information with others. The guide lists three nonpartisan groups:
- Protect Democracy, “which has already launched successful lawsuits to secure voting rights in several states”;
- the States United Democracy Center, “which collaborates with police as well as election workers to make sure that elections are safe”; and
- the Brennan Center for Justice, “whose lawyers and experts are preparing for attempts to steal the election …” and who just filed the brief that FAWCO signed to protect overseas voting in Pennsylvania;
The guide adds two partisan groups: “For voters who lean Democratic, Democracy Docket also offers a wealth of advice, suggestions, and information. … For Republicans, Republicans for the Rule of Law … can help keep people informed.”
Act now – to protect your rights and US democracy in 2024 and the future.
Information sources
Applebaum A. The danger is greater than in 2020. Be prepared. A citizen’s guide to defending the 2024 election. The Atlantic, October 15, 2024.
Brief of amici curiae nonpartisan organizations and impacted overseas voters in support of defendants’ motion to dismiss and in opposition to plaintiffs’ motion for temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction. Brennan Center for Justice, October 18, 2024.
Gardner A, Alemany J, Lamothe D. Republicans face backlash for lawsuits targeting overseas and military voting. Washington Post, October 14, 2024.
MSNBC's The Weekend Interview: U.S. Vote Foundation President and CEO Defends 2024 Overseas and Military Voters Against False Accusations and Misguided Lawsuits – video and transcript. US Vote Foundation, October 12, 2024.
Pereira I. Advocates for overseas military families, ex-pats push back against GOP suits against absentee votes. ABC News, October 19, 2024.
Scolforo M. Judge tosses GOP congressmen’s lawsuit over Pennsylvania’s overseas and military votes. AP, October 29, 2024.
Sneed T, Cohen M. Judges reject RNC lawsuits challenging some overseas ballots in Michigan and North Carolina. CNN, October 22, 2024.
Sneed T, Treene A, Dovere E-I, Overseas voters – now a bloc that could be crucial for Democrats – targeted by GOP lawsuits in battleground states. CNN, October 17, 2024.