US District Judge Christopher Conner on Tuesday dismissed Republicans’ challenge against a state law that obligates Pennsylvania to accept military and overseas ballots cast without requirements of providing identification proof.

The case concerned Pennsylvania’s Uniform Military and Overseas Voters Act (UMOVA), which allows overseas and military voters to mail in ballots without providing identification proof. The UMOVA extends the federal Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) to state and local elections, with an expanded class of eligible voters. The Republicans argued that by exempting the requirement of identification proof, the law allows ineligible ballots that “leave federal elections vulnerable to foreign interference” by falsifying foreign postcard applications. They called on the court to bar Pennsylvania from implementing UMOVA and accepting overseas and military ballots.

Dismissing the challenge, Conner asserted that it was brought with inexcusable delay — two years after Pennsylvania’s State Department issued the guidance for military-overseas voters in September 2022. The Republicans explained that they commenced the challenge at their earliest opportunities after the US Department of Justice unsealed an indictment of several Iranians for election interference on September 27. The plaintiffs asserted that the case revealed the risk of foreign interference and “voter dilution.” Conner rejected this argument, reasoning that the Republicans could have discovered the alleged problem by “a simple Google search.” Conner also stated that a “last-minute” injunction that changes overseas ballots regulations would “lead to voter confusion.”

The court also dismissed the lawsuit on other procedural grounds. Conner maintained that without suing Pennsylvania county boards of elections, the intended injunction against the Secretary of the Commonwealth is meaningless because the Secretary has no authority on the county boards. In addition, the court also found that the Republicans lacked standing because they suffered no legal injuries caused by the impugned provisions.

The Republicans brought this challenge under the US Constitution’s Supremacy Clause, which dictates that federal law preempts state law. The plaintiffs argued that UMOVA, seeking to waive the voter registration requirement for verifying the identity and eligibility of Pennsylvania UOCAVA applications, is unconstitutional. The court rejected the challenge because violating the Supremacy Clause is not a valid private cause of action.

Relatedly, the Republicans commenced another challenge at the US Supreme Court on Monday, seeking to overturn a Supreme Court of Pennsylvania ruling that requires election boards to count provisional ballots submitted by voters whose mail-in had been deemed invalid.

Pennsylvania was one of the swing states in the 2020 presidential election. Joe Biden won in Pennsylvania by 80,555 votes, with 1,400,150 mail-in ballots more than Donald Trump.