Overseas Ballots Challenged in Pennsylvania

Over 4,000 ballots from 14 counties in Pennsylvania have been challenged apprently by Trump supporters using a mass mail-merge program. Under Pennsylvania law only residents of Pennsylvania are allowed to vote in the state's elections. Federal law allows citizens living overseas to vote in federal elections in the last place they lived in the US if they are unsure about returning. In 2020 Pennsylvania counted 26,952 ballots returned from overseas. The ACLU said counties receiving such challenges should quickly reject them as "as both procedurally and substantively deficient.” So far officials in Bucks, Lancaster, Lehigh, York, Cumberland, Dauphin, Beaver, Centre, and Lycoming county have all received challenges. 

An organization named "Election Research Institute" appears to be behind the campaign to disqualify overseas voters. This group is led by a Heather Honey, an activist that lost a federal lawsuit challenging eligibility, which the judge said was based on "phantom fears of foreign malfeasance". The election in Pennsylvania is closely fought with both side challenging ballots technicalities.  For example courts have recently ruled that voters forgetting to write the date on the ballots will not have their votes counted. Voters who do not use the security sleeve to protect their mailed ballots, may provisional ballots on Election Day at the polls.