A federal judge ruled Tuesday against Republican congressmen from Pennsylvania who filed a lawsuit against the secretary of the Commonwealth over allegedly lax requirements for military and foreign voters.

US District Judge Christopher Conner dismissed the claimruling that the congressmen “took too long to present their action, lack active standing, have not joined indispensable parties, and have failed to articulate a viable cause of action.”

“A court order at this late hour would alter the Commonwealth’s carefully established election administration procedures to the detriment of untold thousands of voters, not to mention the state and county administrators who would be expected to implement these new procedures in addition to their duties. “Conner said.

Pennsylvania Republican Representatives Guy Reschenthaler, Dan Meuser, Glenn “GT” Thompson, Lloyd Smucker and Mike Kelly filed a lawsuit in federal court last month against Pennsylvania Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt (R) and Deputy Secretary of Elections Jonathan Marks for a directive on verifying the eligibility of military and overseas voters.

These voters can vote from outside the US due to the federal Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA). To request a UOCAVA ballot, a voter must provide a Social Security number and a state-issued driver’s license or identification number, which are used to verify the voter’s identity.

However, the Pennsylvania Department of State directive states “that Pennsylvania and federal law are clear that voter registrations cannot be rejected based solely on a mismatch between the applicant’s identification numbers on their application and the comparison database numbers”.

The lawmakers’ lawsuit argued that the directive violates both UOCAVA and the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA).