RNC sues Nebraska in latest bid to disenfranchise U.S. citizens living abroad

The Republican National Committee (RNC) filed a lawsuit Monday seeking to block certain U.S. citizens living abroad from voting in Nebraska, expanding the GOP’s multi-state campaign against overseas voters.

The lawsuit challenges a Nebraska law that allows U.S. citizens living overseas to vote in the state if they have never lived in the U.S., are not registered in another state and have a parent registered to vote in Nebraska.

It is the latest in a growing series of Republican lawsuits targeting Americans born abroad, often to military families or citizens working overseas, who are eligible to vote based on a parent’s connection to a state.

The RNC is suing Nebraska Secretary of State Robert Evnen, a Republican, and argues that the state law violates the Nebraska Constitution’s residency requirement.

“Nebraska’s Constitution is clear: voters must live in Nebraska,” RNC Chairman Joe Gruters said in a press release. “This law tries to get around that requirement by allowing people who have never lived in the state to vote.”

The RNC claims that allowing these voters to cast ballots “dilutes the votes of lawful Republican Voters.”

The filing asks the court to declare the law unconstitutional and order Evnen not to provide ballots to voters who qualify under the challenged provision.

The lawsuit does not challenge Nebraska’s separate protections for military members, National Guard members, overseas citizens who previously lived in Nebraska or their spouses and dependents. The RNC emphasized that point in its press release, saying the case “does not affect military members or overseas voters who previously lived in Nebraska and remain legally eligible to vote under state and federal law.”

Still, the case fits squarely within the GOP’s broader legal campaign against overseas voters. Republicans have filed similar lawsuits in Michigan, Virginia, Arizona and North Carolina, repeatedly arguing that states cannot extend voting rights to citizens who have never personally lived there.

Michigan courts have already rejected that argument, upholding voting protections for overseas spouses and dependents. In April, a Michigan court tossed a similar GOP lawsuit, ruling that state lawmakers had authority to protect those voters.

The Nebraska complaint, however, appears less polished than some of the RNC’s other filings.

In multiple places, the lawsuit names the wrong statute. Although the complaint challenges § 32-939(2), it later alleges that “§ 32-393(2)” violates the Nebraska Constitution, a provision that does not exist in the state’s official legal code. In the request for relief, the complaint asks the court to declare § 32-393(2) unconstitutional while also asking the court to block ballots under § 32-939(2).

Elsewhere, the complaint says the secretary of state maintains “voter polls,” rather than voter rolls, and refers to Evnen as both “defendant” and “respondent” in the same complaint.

While those errors do not change the stakes of the case, they underscore the rushed feel of a lawsuit aimed at cutting off voting rights for a narrow group of American citizens abroad.