Lancaster County officials on Friday announced that fraudulent voter registration forms were found in a batch of nearly 2,500 that were turned into the county’s election office in the final days of the registration period. It is unknown how many registrations from that batch were fraudulent or legitimate. Election staff, headed by director Christa Miller, discovered inconsistencies like duplicate handwriting and incorrect personal information and immediately contacted the District Attorney’s Office.
Police are investigating who dropped off the forms at the county Board of Elections office on October 18th and October 21st. Lancaster County Board of Elections vice-chair Ray D’Agostino said at a news conference, “Through the staff’s normal review process, as many as 2,500 completed voter registration forms are being researched for potential fraud stemming from two separate drop batches by individuals.” Most of the applications were for Lancaster City residents, but others were from Columbia, Elizabethtown, Mount Joy, Stevens, Strasburg, and other locations across Lancaster County.
Lancaster County District Attorney Heather Adams shared those numerous applications “appear to have the same handwriting filled out on the same day with unknown signatures, and some were previously registered voters, and the signatures on file did not match the signatures on the application.” She added that some of the applications contained correct personal identification information, but when they were contacted by the names on those forms, investigators were told those individuals had never requested or completed those forms.
“At this point, it’s believed that the fraudulent voter registrations are connected to large-scale canvassing operations for voter registrations that date back to June, however, a majority of the applications received are dated August 15,” Adams said. While she mentioned that canvassers were employed and paid to obtain voter registration applications, she declined to identify a group or party affiliation.
Josh Parsons, chair of the Lancaster County Commissioners, said, “When we sit here as members of the Board of Elections, our duty is to follow and enforce the law. That’s what we’ve always done. I will note that earlier this week, even as our nonpartisan election workers were doing their jobs and finding the suspected fraud, they were being attacked with false allegations from groups like the ACLU, WITF, LNP, and others who falsely alleged allegations that were frankly absurd.” He added that Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt repeated these false allegations in a letter to the commissioners, which was leaked to LNP.
State Representative Bryan Cutler (R-Lancaster) said “The commitment of the Board of Elections staff and volunteers deserves special recognition as this comes just days after Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt made unwarranted accusations against our county. Meanwhile, Schmidt’s own ‘Election Threats Task Force’ has provided nothing to try and address this now-known threat that could go far beyond our county borders.”
To ease voters’ minds, D’Agostino told reporters, “The fact of the matter is, we’ve contained this. This is not right. It’s illegal. It’s immoral. And we found it, and we’re going to take care of it.” The Pennsylvania Department of State said, “As the county’s efforts show, multiple safeguards exist to ensure the integrity of our elections, and Pennsylvanians can have confidence that this November’s election will be safe, secure, free, and fair.”
The investigation is ongoing, and the Board emphasized the importance of integrity and transparency in the election process. Pennsylvania voters can check their voter registration online at www.pavoterservices.pa.gov/pages/voterregistrationstatus.aspx.
