Judges in Michigan and North Carolina reject challenges to overseas votes
Judges in Michigan and North Carolina on Monday ruled against legal challenges that attempted to disqualify votes cast by eligible American voters overseas.
Republican plaintiffs claimed that election offices in those two states, as well as in Pennsylvania, had created loopholes that would allow ineligible people to vote through overseas absentee ballots.
In Michigan, the judge dismissed one of three suits filed, calling it in his opinion "an 11th-hour attempt to disenfranchise these electors."
In North Carolina, the judge denied a request by plaintiffs to set aside the ballots of overseas voters until a time at which their individual eligibility could be verified. Superior Court Judge John Smith wrote in that instance that there was "absolutely no evidence that any person has ever fraudulently claimed that exemption and actually voted in any North Carolina election."
His ruling also stated conclusively that, "This court has weighed the hypothetical possibility of harm to plaintiffs against the rights of the defendants and finds that on balance the equitable discretion of this court should not be invoked to treat an entire group of citizens differently based upon unsupported and speculative allegations for which there is not even a scintilla of substantive evidence."
A ruling on a similar lawsuit in Pennsylvania is expected soon.
-ABC News' T. Michelle Murphy and Ivan Pereira






