Judges in North Carolina and Michigan rejected challenges on Monday to some overseas ballots there that allegedly came from voters who had never lived in the respective states. 

The Republican National Committee sued the states to get the ballots scrutinized, but could not get traction on the case in either state.

Michigan Judge Sima Patel argued that the RNC waited too long to bring the suit.

“A challenge could have been raised at any time after 2017, and should have at least been brought earlier in the year leading up to the general election, not 28 days before,” Patel wrote in the ruling.

No injunction

North Carolina Judge John Smith declined to give the RNC an injunction to reject the ballots, saying the RNC was unlikely to win the case.

The RNC had “not presented any evidence” that fraud had occurred, Smith further said.

“This court has weighed the hypothetical possibility of harm to plaintiffs against the rights of the defendants and finds that on balance the equitable discretion of this court should not be invoked to treat an entire group of citizens differently based upon unsupported and speculative allegations for which there is not even a scintilla of substantive evidence,” Smith wrote in his ruling.

The ballots were accepted based on the voters' parents having lived in the jurisdictions before the voters moved overseas. The children of those voters reached age 18 while living overseas and applied to get ballots.

A target

The voters are American citizens, but had not lived in the U.S. since reaching voting age.

The ballots were not illegal according to voting laws, but because overseas non-military voters are typically Democrat, the RNC has decided to target them.

The ballots represented thousands of votes across the two states, which could represent a decisive number in a very close election.

The Real Clear Politics polling average is razor thin, but former President Donald Trump has the current advantage in swing states and the Electoral College.

The difference is within the margin of error for most of the polls, but represents the average of a number of polls and is considered to be more accurate.

Additionally, the polls were off by at least five points in President Joe Biden's favor in 2020, so if the same thing is true this time, Trump will win decisively.