Investigation into PA voter registration forms leads to misinformation • Spotlight PA

HARRISBURG – Investigations into possible fraud on voter registration applications in three Pennsylvania counties have become fodder for online disinformation, including from Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

Authorities in Lancaster, Monroe and York counties have released limited details, and local prosecutors are investigating whether crimes may have occurred.

What do we know?

Lancaster County District Attorney Heather Adams, an elected Republican, said election workers raised concerns about two sets of voter registration applications because of what she described as numerous similarities. In total they examine approximately 2,500 forms.

Lancaster officials said they had alerted two other counties to monitor similar registration applications. In Monroe County, election board staff identified about 30 irregular forms and referred them to the district attorney’s office.

York County Chief Clerk Greg Monskie confirmed this week that his county was reviewing suspect forms. County Commissioner Julie Wheeler issued a statement saying voter registration forms and ballots were part of a “large shipment of thousands of election-related materials” that the county election office received from a third-party organization. She said if an investigation finds suspected fraud, the district attorney will investigate.

The York district attorney’s office said it was in contact with the board of commissioners and the elections office, but did not indicate whether a criminal investigation had been launched.

Who issued the relevant forms?

Lancaster County officials have not released who they believe is responsible. In a text exchange with The Associated Press, Wheeler attributed the documents York County received to Field+Media Corps, which she said was “acting on behalf of” the Everybody Votes Campaign. Everybody Votes is a nonpartisan national organization that promotes voter registration.

Francisco Heredia, CEO of Field+Media Corps, said in an email Tuesday that his Mesa, Arizona-based organization had not been contacted by election officials in Pennsylvania counties and had no additional information about the alleged problematic forms.

If Field+Media Corps is contacted, he said, it will “work with local officials to resolve any discrepancies so that eligible people can vote.” He said there were also six or seven other organizations operating in the area.

In an email response this week, a spokesperson for the Everybody Votes Campaign said he had not been contacted by officials in Lancaster, York or Monroe counties about any ongoing investigation and had no additional information about the forms.

What has Trump said about the investigations?

Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaigns have visited Pennsylvania more than any other state because it has the most voters of any battleground state.

Trump posted about the issue on his Truth Social platform earlier this week, saying that Lancaster County was “caught with 2,600 counterfeit ballots and forms, all written by the same person.” There’s no reason to think ballots are part of what Lancaster is looking at.

They have said that 2,500 voter registration forms have been separated for examination, but have not said how many of them are problematic. Some of these forms are considered legitimate and are being processed as usual, Lancaster officials said. Voter registration forms are not ballots.

At a campaign event in Allentown on Tuesday, the former president said: “They already started cheating in Lancaster. They cheated. We caught them with 2,600 votes. No, we caught them cold. 2,600 votes. Think here Think about it: think about this. And every voice was written by the same person.”

To be clear, Lancaster examines voter registration applications, not “votes.” Lancaster officials said some forms contained false names, suspicious handwriting, questionable signatures, incorrect addresses or other problematic details, but did not say they were all written by the same person.

Adams, the Lancaster County prosecutor, said falsifying a voter registration application is a third-degree felony, punishable by up to seven years in prison and a $15,000 fine. She said state election law carries different penalties depending on the provision, but noted that violating one section could result in a loss of voting rights for 10 years.

Is voter registration fraud a real problem?

Former Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar said there have been cases in the past where a combination of financial incentives for people involved in voter registration efforts and poor oversight of those efforts have led to problems.

Fake registration forms increase workloads and cause frustration among county elections workers, she said, but emphasized that this does not translate into a greater risk of someone voting inappropriately.

Pennsylvania election workers who receive a new voter registration form confirm the voter’s identity and address. They also send mail to the address listed on the form, she said. New voters, and those voting in a new district, must provide proof of identity and their signature will be checked against a ballot book.

“There are so many checks and balances in the process to ensure that the election is secure and integrity is protected,” Boockvar said.

Al Schmidt, Pennsylvania’s top elections official, noted the enormous amount of misinformation circulating Tuesday leading up to Election Day and urged people to get their information from “reliable sources.”

“Distributing videos and other information without context, sharing social posts full of half-truths or even outright lies is harmful to our representative democracy,” he said during a media briefing on Wednesday.

Schmidt highlighted the various controls put in place to ensure that only eligible voters cast their ballots and that only one vote per voter is counted.