York County dismisses 354 challenges to federal, overseas voters

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 Ed Mahon / PA Post

Republican commissioner candidate Julie Wheeler participates in a debate on April 29, 2019, at Shiloh Fire Company in York County.

York County commissioners on Monday unanimously dismissed challenges to a specific subset of overseas voters. 

The challenges to 354 overseas U.S. citizens were filed by Dover Township resident Angie Kline, who paid $10 for each challenge, as required under state law. The $3,540 she deposited with the county was not her own, she said. 

“I don’t even know where it came from,” Kline said. 

She denied association with PA Fair Elections and the Election Research Institute, groups that promote conspiracies about election administration. Members of both groups have filed similar if not identical challenges in other counties, as have GOP state Sens. Cris Dush and Jarrett Coleman. 

In total, there are 3,674 challenges to federal voters across 10 counties: Allegheny, Beaver, Bucks, Centre, Chester, Clinton, Cumberland, Dauphin, Delaware, Lancaster, Lehigh, Lycoming, York.

York County will keep the challenged ballots segregated for the appeal period of 48-hours. That will expire at 2:20 p.m. on Wednesday, according to associate county solicitor Robert Gavin. 

If there is not an appeal, the county will begin to process the ballots. The totals will not be included in election night results. Rather, they will be uploaded with totals from provisional ballots and military and overseas votes, which are always processed after Election Day, according to county clerk Gregory Monskie. 

York County has not informed federal voters of the challenges, as the county doesn’t consider them party to the issue, Monskie said. The county also did not provide 24-hour notice of the meeting, as it was an emergency hearing, he said. 

During the emergency hearing, assistant solicitor Gavin advised the commissioners that the challenges were deficient for two reasons. 

They confused state and federal law about requirements to register to vote, and they failed to provide any individual information about the voters. 

Because federal voters are U.S. citizens living abroad with no intent to return to the state, they are not allowed to register as a voter in the state. Under the federal Uniformed and Overseas Citizen Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA), these voters work with the election offices in their county of last U.S. residence to request absentee ballots. Those ballots only include federal races. 

The voters, Gavin said, effectively undergo a federal registration at the same time they request their absentee ballot. 

Kline was represented at the hearing by Alina Dusharm, a local attorney with the Beacon Law Firm, specializing in child custody. 

Dusharm offered an exactly opposite interpretation of the state and federal laws, stating that the voters should be required to register and that they should be on the state voter registration lists. 

In her statements, Kline said she had no specific information that any of the challenged voters were in fact not U.S. citizens. She said she wanted the county to go through a new process to individually verify each federal voter is a U.S. citizen. 

She said the county should not be able to certify its vote until that process is complete. She did not offer details as to how the county could complete that task to her satisfaction. 

Election deniers are looking for any bit of manufactured evidence to challenge results in case former president and current Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump loses, according to Kyle Miller. He’s the Pennsylvania lead for Protect Democracy, a nonprofit group that says it works against authoritarian efforts in the United States. 

Miller doesn’t have specific information about Kline, but said her efforts are part of a larger movement that is seeking to delay the results to create confusion. The playbook of election deniers is to look for any votes against certification to claim there is evidence there is fraud that is being covered up. The goal is to force a contested election. 

“This is the last gasp of this effort to overturn legitimate election results,” Miller said.

Kline, and whoever provided the money, will not get it back, pending appeal. When challenges are dismissed, that money goes into the county’s general fund, per state law.

Sometimes, your mornings are just too busy to catch the news beyond a headline or two. Don’t worry. The Morning Agenda has got your back. Each weekday morning, host Tim Lambert will keep you informed, amused, enlightened and up-to-date on what’s happening in central Pennsylvania and the rest of this great commonwealth.

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