York Dispatch: U.S. Rep. Scott Perry, a veteran, voted absentee while serving abroad. Now, he’s challenging military voting

U.S. Rep. Scott Perry's public voting records show that, despite his recent legal challenge to Pennsylvania's ballot procedures for active military, he voted absentee at least twice while serving in the military.

Perry is among a group of Republican congressmen, including fellow York County congressman Lloyd Smucker, who sued the Pennsylvania Department of State. He called into question ballots that fall under the federal Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, UOCAVA, which allows military members stationed abroad, their families and other U.S. citizens who live overseas for various reasons to vote.

Public voting records The York Dispatch obtained from the York County elections department show that Perry has voted a dozen times, starting in 2008 and including last November's election. Two of those votes were placed while he was serving overseas in the military.

Perry did not respond to requests for comment.

In a legal filing weeks before the Nov. 5 election, Perry and the other GOP congressmen asked a federal judge to make county officials set aside overseas ballots and exclude them from official vote counts. They argued that the identities of the voters who cast such ballots aren't adequately verified.

Department of State officials said the lawsuit makes bad-faith arguments to prevent votes cast by people serving in the military from being counted.

Although Pennsylvania does not require overseas voters to provide identification like a driver's license or passport, the state agency that oversees election administration said the practice of overseas voting has been effective and safe.

Pennsylvania has already sent ballots to people stationed abroad, a small but crucial number in what's expected to be a closely contested presidential race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.

Perry's voting records show that he voted "AM," the abbreviation signifying "active military," during the 2008 and 2009 general elections.

Perry, a Dillsburg native who lives in Carroll Township, took an operational assignment with a combat aviation brigade in Operation Iraqi Freedom from January 2009 to January 2010, likely necessitating his need to vote through the mail and away from his polling location.

Perry, who is in a tight race with Democrat Janelle Stelson for his seat in Congress, has spoken negatively about voting through the mail, suggesting in April there should not be an Election Week or Month - only Election Day, according to the Penn Capital-Star's report from that event.

Perry has been targeted as a central figure in former President Donald Trump's attempts to subvert and overturn the 2020 election. He has spent more than $200,000 on legal fees in a fight with the federal government over his cellphone and related records. The Jan. 6 committee's 154-page report from 2022 alleges that Perry had "material facts" regarding Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Other members of Pennsylvania's congressional delegation who joined Perry in the suit are Lloyd Smucker, who represents southern York County; Guy Reschenthaler; Dan Meuser; Glenn Thompson and Mike Kelly. All of them supported Perry's Jan. 6, 2021, effort to halt the certification of the election that Biden won after the deadly riots at the U.S. Capitol.

Perry opposed certifying President Joe Biden's 2020 victory after the violence had subsided at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Since the FBI seized his cellphone in the summer of 2022, Perry's campaign has paid around $437,000 for legal services.