Pennsylvania County discovers ‘organized effort’ to submit hundreds of fraudulent voter registration applications

The discovery of hundreds of fraudulent voter registration forms in Pennsylvania is fueling fears about election integrity in the key battleground state.

During a press conference on Friday, Lancaster County Board of Commissioners Vice Chairman Ray D’Agostino said said election officials discovered “apparent incidents of attempted voter registration fraud” in the Republican-leaning county.

Mr. D’Agostino shared that “as many as 2,500” voter registration forms appeared to be fraudulent and were discovered during a routine review process. An investigation into the forms showed that roughly 60 percent of the 2,500 applications were fraudulent and not all had been assessed at the time of the press conference.

Although the apparent plot to cast fraudulent votes appears to have been foiled, it is fueling fears on social media about fraud in the upcoming elections. The director of media and public relations at the conservative Heritage Foundation, Harrison Fields, shared the news on X and wrote“SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING.”

The president of the Students for Trump organization, Ryan Fournier, asked“What’s going on in Pennsylvania?”

“It is now being reported that thousands of counterfeit ballots have been intercepted and can no longer be processed. Don’t ever tell me voter fraud doesn’t exist. They will do everything they can to stop Donald J. Trump from winning back the White House,” he added.

A Pennsylvania state lawmaker, Barb Gleim, urged people to “be vigilant across the state” after discovering the fraudulent applications. In a post on X she said wrote“Every legal vote of an American citizen matters, and that includes the integrity of our elections.”

Pennsylvania House Republican Leader Brian Cutler said in a statement: “Pennsylvanians have demanded that our elections be secure, safe and accurate, and I applaud the work of the Lancaster County Board of Elections and the district attorney’s office to detect and root out fraud in our election process to row.”

“This investigation serves as a stark reminder of the lengths criminals are willing to go to to influence our electoral process,” he added.

Local officials at the press conference shared limited information on the case as there is an ongoing investigation.

Lancaster District Attorney Heather Adams told reporters at the news conference that election workers noted that “numerous applications appeared to have the same handwriting, had been completed on the same day, and that some were previously registered voters, and that the signatures on file were.” do not match the signatures on the applications.”

However, she said the suspected fraud forms appear to be part of a “large-scale voter registration recruitment operation dating back to June,” but most of the applications were dated after August 15.

Ms Adams said not all applications were fraudulent and there were forms that had been completed legitimately. She also said there appeared to be an “organized effort” behind the applications, and promised that officials would investigate “who exactly participated and how far it reaches.” The prosecutor said “at least two other provinces” had received similar requests, but declined to name the other provinces.

Meanwhile, Mr. D’Agostino said the effort “did not appear” to impact any particular party. Ms. Adams suggested that it “doesn’t matter” whether the registration forms were for one party or the other because their existence “increases the likelihood that there will be voter fraud.”

She added: “Thankfully we left off with part one. That was getting a voter on the books that maybe shouldn’t have been. But part two is about whether or not someone intended to turn that application into a fraudulent ballot. And that has stopped in every respect.”

During the news conference, officials sought to reassure voters about the integrity of the upcoming election by noting that election workers spotted the fraudulent applications during a routine review process and before votes could have been cast.