Pennsylvania Republicans challenge state, federal voter registration moves

Twenty-four Pennsylvania Republican lawmakers this week challenged several federal and state voter registration efforts ahead of the 2024 election.

The one federal and two state initiatives, they claim, did not receive endorsement from the relevant legislatures or run against established law, according to the Associated Press.

Among the three at issue is a 2021 executive order from President Joe Biden directing federal agencies to explore ways to boost voter registration access. The second is Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro's automatic voter registration plan, which he announced last September.

The final initiative with which the Republicans take issue is a 2018 order from the prior governor, Tom Wolf, D, forbidding counties from rejecting voter registration solely due to the inclusion of a driver's license or social security number that doesn't match government records.

The most recent of the three is Shapiro's introduction of automatic voter registration in the Keystone State.

"From now on, when you get or renew your driver's license or an ID card at the DMV, you'll be registered to vote unless you choose not to. I made a commitment when I was campaigning for this office that we would bring automatic voter registration to Pennsylvania and break down the barriers for legal eligible voters," he said in September.

The governor's office called the suit "frivolous," per the AP, and said it "looks forward to once again defending our democracy in court against those advancing extreme, undemocratic legal theories."

Pennsylvania was one of a handful of states that attracted scrutiny for its handling of election integrity in the wake of the 2020 presidential election. Former President Donald Trump included Pennsylvania among the handful of states he alleged saw outcome-changing voter fraud.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter.