U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio (PA-17) speaks to reporters at an event highlighting the Biden Administration’s investment in infrastructure at the Kingsley Center Pittsburgh’s Larimer neighborhood on Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2024. (Steve Mellon/Pittsburgh Union Progress)
U.S. Rep Chris Deluzio (D-17th District) is blasting fellow members of Pennsylvania’s House delegation who filed a lawsuit challenging the validity of overseas ballots cast by active duty service members. Deluzio, a U.S. Navy veteran, said the lawsuit amounts to a “horrific attack” on the voting rights of overseas service members and their families.
“Remember who filed this: my Republican counterparts in the Pennsylvania delegation — all of whom voted against certifying our election in 2020, trying to help Donald Trump overthrow the Constitution. And they did this when? After ballots had already been going out,” Deluzio told the Capital-Star. “This was not some good faith effort on some fix that might be needed on something. No, this was an effort to help Donald Trump, who wants to set the stage for Lord knows what, and they’re willing to go after our overseas service members, our deployed military members, to do it. And I think it’s gross.”
GOP U.S. Reps. Guy Reschenthaler, Dan Meuser, Glenn “G.T.” Thompson, Lloyd Smucker, Mike Kelly, and Scott Perry — all of whom are seeking reelection in 2024 — claimed in the suit that Pennsylvania violates federal election law by failing to verify the identities of service members who apply for overseas absentee ballots. Under Pennsylvania Department of State guidelines, military voters and their spouses are exempt from voter identification and eligibility verification requirements.
Perry is a U.S. Army veteran and Reschenthaler is a veteran of the U.S. Navy.
Pa. Republican congressmen allege Pennsylvania’s military ballot rules violate federal law
The Pennsylvania suit claims that the state provision violates the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) and Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA), and seeks an injunction requiring election officials to verify the identities of people applying for overseas ballots and to set aside and not count any ballots received before Election Day until the senders’ identities have been verified.
Deluzio is one of more than 100 Pennsylvania veterans and members of military families who signed a letter supported by Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign that condemns the GOP lawsuits. “For those of us who sacrifice so much for this country, to have our right to vote questioned or impeded is nothing short of a betrayal,” the letter states.
U.S. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-6th District), a U.S. Air Force veteran, also signed the letter, along with state Rep.. Chris Pielli (D-Chester), former Congressman Chris Carney, and former state official Meg Snead.
“I joined this letter here in Pennsylvania with other veterans, and to make clear that we find this unacceptable and that we’re gonna do everything we can to protect the First Amendment rights and the constitutional rights of our overseas service members,” Deluzio said.
The Pennsylvania lawsuit is among several filed by the Republican Party challenging military and overseas voting in battleground states including Pennsylvania, Michigan and North Carolina. They followed a social media post from former President Donald Trump, the GOP nominee for president, who claimed without evidence that Democrats were “getting ready to CHEAT!” by using the UOCAVA Act to send ballots overseas.
In a statement to the Capital-Star, Perry defended the letter as an attempt to prevent Iran from interfering in the election, and accused the Pennsylvania Department of State of “turning a blind eye to non-U.S. citizens voting” via UOCAVA.
“As a combat veteran, no one believes more strongly in protecting the sanctity of our votes — particularly those of our service members abroad — than I do. That’s exactly why I joined my colleagues to defend our election against the intrusion and interference of the greatest state sponsor of terrorism in the world – Iran. Iran has already shown its ability to hack American voting systems — successfully in Alaska so far,” the statement reads. Perry appeared to be referring to a 2020 incident where Iranian hackers gained access to some voter data in Alaska.
Perry’s statement goes on to mention a frequent complaint from GOP lawmakers in the current election cycle: non-citizens voting. The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill in July to require individuals registering to vote to provide proof of citizenship to participate in federal elections, and would also require states to check their voter rolls for registered noncitizens.
The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, or SAVE, is intended to prevent noncitizens from voting. That act is already illegal, since under current U.S. law, only citizens can vote in federal elections, but the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 prohibits states from confirming citizenship status. The SAVE Act bill failed to advance in the U.S. Senate.
“The Pennsylvania Department of State has turned a blind eye to non-U.S. citizens voting this November via the Uniformed Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA). In PA presently, 30,000 ballots have been submitted, and 15,000 are unregistered voters. It is illegal to vote if you are not registered. Our lawsuit seeks to bring accountability and oversight at a time when voter confidence in the principle of ‘one-person, one-vote’ is needed the most.”
A spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Department of State called Perry’s statement “patently false.”
“As Congressman Perry, who himself was entitled to the protections of UOCAVA in the past, should well know, federal and state law provide special protections for military and overseas voters. Specifically, UOCAVA provides that certain types of voters, known as federal voters, may vote for federal offices even if they are not registered in Pennsylvania,” DOS press secretary Matt Heckel wrote in an email to the Capital-Star. “The federal complaint which he filed makes zero factual claims of any fraud in connection with UOCAVA ballots and appears to be part of a baseless and concerted effort to disenfranchise military and overseas citizens who have every right to participate in the upcoming election.”
Harris says Trump is a fascist and ‘unfit to serve’ during Pennsylvania town hall
For his part, Deluzio said he draws a distinction between Republican voters and GOP politicians.
“I spend time in rooms with voters across the political spectrum, the overwhelming majority of whom are patriotic, are good and decent people and want our country to succeed,” he said. “But the politicians on the right who are carrying water for Mr. Trump — I mean, they are taking the word of a serial liar and a draft dodger over Gold Star father, four star general John Kelly, who tells you about what Donald Trump says, and folks aren’t listening, about wanting generals like Hitler. You’ve got his former secretary of defense, Mark Esper, a West Point grad, a western Pennsylvania guy, who tells you the people who have seen him in the Situation Room, seen him near the nuclear codes, you know, that he doesn’t have the character or the judgment to lead.”
The Michigan and North Carolina lawsuits were dismissed last week. But Jack Inacker, co-chair of Veterans and Military Families for Harris-Walz and an Air Force veteran, said the lawsuits represent a pattern by the Trump-led GOP, of disrespecting members of the military and veterans.
“You see his attack on [the late] John McCain, noted war hero; you start to see the attacks calling service members who had died in the line of battle, ‘suckers and losers.’ You had seen the disrespect that he showed folks at Arlington National Cemetery,” Inacker said. “And you get a very full and complete picture of who Donald Trump is.”
The Trump campaign did not immediately reply to a request for comment Monday.
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