Suburban Philadelphia counties are being asked to throw out the mail-in ballot applications of hundreds of voters in what the ACLU says are mass-produced and illegal challenges. The challenges question the voter’s residence based on a supposed match with a U.S. Postal Service change-of-address database. Via the Associated Press:
Diane Houser, a supporter of former President Donald Trump who filed over 200 of the challenges in Chester County, said the challenges are nonpartisan and from a grassroots network targeting the ballot applications of people who moved out of state.
However, the ACLU said the challenges are illegal because voters can only be challenged on their qualifications to register to vote. Friday is the deadline for such challenges, which the ACLU said must be based on specific evidence that a certain would-be voter is not eligible to vote.
The challenges are based on a faulty premise that someone is moving out-of-state permanently because the change-of-address forms are also designed to help someone get their mail forwarded, the ACLU said. Someone in the database may be temporarily relocating for school, military service or other purposes, as opposed to permanently changing their residence, the ACLU wrote in a letter to counties.
Sigh. Here’s the problem. Whether through extreme binary thinking or cynicism, these True Believers challenge every single step of the electoral process (thanks to right-wing operatives like Cleta Mitchell egging them on). And it’s not hard for them to make their accusations seem nefarious, because the election laws are complex and these are not people who do well with nuance.
For example, a lot of these people who are screaming about voter suppression in Bucks County are pissed off because they waited until the very last day to request a mail-in ballot in person — something they could have done online weeks ago. But it’s always about the plot against MAGAts.
