YORK, Pa. - This afternoon the York County board of elections voted 3-0 to dismiss challenges to mail ballots submitted by Pennsylvanians living overseas, ensuring the counting of ballots from more than 300 York Countians who reside abroad. York was the first county board to consider these challenges, which were submitted in 14 counties late on Friday, totaling approximately 4000 statewide.
On Sunday, the ACLU of Pennsylvania and the ACLU sent a letter to all 67 county solicitors in the commonwealth, warning them that the voters were legally entitled to vote under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, a law passed with bipartisan support and signed by President Reagan in 1986.
After the board’s vote, PA Voters Decide, an informal coalition of more than 50 pro-voter organizations, responded in a statement.
“These U.S. citizens living abroad have every right to vote, and some of them have been voting for decades,” said Witold Walczak, legal director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania. “The people who challenged these voters are either ignorant of the law or intentionally sowing discontent and doubt about our elections. The challengers’ beef isn’t with boards of elections, but with Congress and Ronald Reagan, who adopted the law in 1986.”
The challenged voters are those known as “federal voters” and are U.S. citizens living abroad who are uncertain when they will return. They are registered to vote but only for federal elections in the county where they last resided in the United States via mail ballot. This right to vote is guaranteed by federal law, which county boards of election must honor.
“We’re grateful that the York County board rejected this attempt to suppress the voice of voters and protected the freedom to vote for these U.S. citizens,”said Susan Gobreski, president of the League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania. “We expect other counties will see the growing evidence that these challenges are wrongful and harmful.”
