Last-minute challenges in battleground Pennsylvania target thousands of mail-in ballots

Thousands of mail-in ballots in the battleground state of Pennsylvania have been targeted for rejection as part of a last-minute campaign that has set off alarms for voting rights groups and exasperated local election officials.

Thousands of mail-in ballots in the battleground state of Pennsylvania have been targeted for rejection as part of a last-minute campaign that has set off alarms for voting rights groups and exasperated local election officials. The effort – which appears to be spearheaded by just a handful of individuals – is seeking to toss out ballots from overseas voters and to challenge the eligibility of people who, at some point, had requested to have their mail forwarded to another address. More than a dozen counties received these challenges, according to CNN’s outreach to local and state officials. Some election boards already have set aside the complaints as meritless, but they come as officials are scrambling to carry Tuesday’s consequential election in a state that could determine the outcome of the race for the White House. “It’s going to make voters nervous and it’s creating totally – frankly – BS work for election boards when they’re trying to do an important job,” said Ari Savitzky, a senior attorney for the ACLU. In some counties, the challenges were filed minutes before the Friday deadline for such objections. Bucks County, for instance, received nearly 1,200 challenges to overseas voters about 15 minutes before the 5 p.m. deadline Friday deadline, according to county spokesperson Jim O’Malley.