Pennsylvania officials say “bad-faith mass challenges” target more than 3,500 voters

If the election in Pennsylvania is close, new challenges made to over 3,500 voters, many of whom live overseas and cast ballots by mail, could prove to be a pivotal part of the effort to undermine confidence in the 2024 election. 

“Throughout the day Friday, several bad-faith mass challenges were filed in a coordinated effort in counties across the Commonwealth to question the qualifications of thousands of registered Pennsylvania voters who applied to vote by mail ballot,” the Pennsylvania Department of State said in a statement.

Most of the voters are individuals who live overseas and vote absentee under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, a federal law that has allowed certain citizens living overseas to vote since 1986. This group of voters includes active military members, people who work abroad, and expats. 

Additional challenges were filed questioning voters’ residency because they had a permanent  mail forwarding address with the U.S. Postal Service.

“These challenges are based on theories that courts have repeatedly rejected,” the Pennsylvania Department of State said.

Josh Maxwell, chair of the Board of Commissioners in Chester County, said the elections office received hundreds of challenges from activists in his community based off USPS mail forwarding data. He believes the effort was made in an effort to deprive legitimate voters their right to vote.

“It’s about disenfranchising voters in a swing state and overturning the outcome of an election,” he said. 

Many of these challenges arise from activists associated with organizations that say they focus on election integrity. In Chester County, the activist challenging votes claimed to be affiliated with the group PA Fair Elections in a video hearing last week. PA Fair Elections is part of a broader national initiative to scrutinize voter registrations and ballots, according to the progressive watchdog group Documented. 

According to a report released to CBS News by Documented, PA Fair Elections is run by Heather Honey, an activist whose organization is known for her work to change elections procedures around the country.

Honey is the head of the Election Research Institute, and was involved in the controversial petition to the Georgia State Elections Board that would have made it easier for county boards to block the certification of elections, according to ProPublica. The rule has since been blocked by a Fulton County judge. Honey denies involvement in pushing the Georgia rule. 

“Heather Honey is working as part of a well funded, nationally organized effort to manufacture election conspiracy theories, drum up thinly-sourced voter challenges and call the results into requisition when MAGA Republicans lose,” said Brendan Fisher, Documented’s deputy executive director. 

PA Fair Elections denied any involvement in voter challenges in an email to CBS News. Heather Honey did not respond to a request for comment as of publication. 

Aside from activist groups, several of the challenges to individual voters came from Republican State Senator Jarrett Coleman, who submitted challenges in Bucks and Lehigh Counties. The letter also says he submitted a $10 fee per voter challenge as required. Coleman’s office did not respond to CBS News for comment. 

Now, counties with challenged voters must hold a hearing before the certification deadline on Nov. 12 about the status of these voters, which legal groups say is cause for concern. The ACLU sent an email to 67 county solicitors in Pennsylvania asking the officials to throw out the challenges to both groups of voters.

“Counties should formally dismiss or deny the challenges as quickly as possible to minimize any delay or disruption to the canvassing process,” the ACLU letter stated.

Both York and Chester counties have already rejected all the challenges. 

Concern over overseas absentee voting has been amplified by former President Donald Trump, who posted on Truth Social in September that Democrats “are getting ready to CHEAT! They are going to use UOCAVA [Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act]

 to get ballots, a program that emails ballots overseas without any citizenship check or verification of identity, whatsoever.”

Overseas absentee voting has become a rallying cry for self-described “election integrity” activists who claim individuals living overseas could be submitting fraudulent voter information. In the last few weeks, two lawsuits about overseas absentee voting have been thrown out in North Carolina and Michigan. 

With the Pennsylvania challenges, election boards are the arbitrators, not judges.