Pennsylvania county uncovers ‘organized effort’ to file hundreds of fraudulent voter registration applications

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

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

Mr. D’Agostino said “up to 2,500” voter registration forms appeared to be fraudulent and were discovered during a routine review process. An investigation of the forms determined that about 60 percent of the 2,500 applications were fraudulent, and not all had been reviewed by the time of the news conference.

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

Students for Trump President Ryan Fournier, ask“What’s going on in Pennsylvania?”

“Thousands of fake ballots are now reported to have been intercepted and stopped from processing. Don’t ever tell me voter fraud doesn’t exist. They will do anything to prevent Donald J. Trump from reclaiming the White House,” he added.

A Pennsylvania state lawmaker, Barb Gleim, asked people to be “vigilant across the state” following the discovery of the fraudulent claims. In a post on X, she he wrote“Every legal American citizen who votes matters, and so does the integrity of our elections.”

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

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

Local officials at the press conference impart limited information about the case because there is an ongoing investigation.

Lancaster County District Attorney Heather Adams told reporters at the news conference that election workers noticed that “the application numbers appeared to have the same handwriting, were filled out on the same day, and some were previously registered voters, and the signatures on file they did it. they don’t match the signatures on the applications.”

However, she said the suspected fraudulent forms appeared to be part of a “large-scale voter registration canvassing 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 were legitimately completed. She also said there appeared to be an “organized effort” behind the requests and that officials promised to look into “exactly who participated in it and how far it goes.” The district attorney said “at least two other counties” have received similar requests, but declined to name the other counties.

Mr. D’Agostino, meanwhile, said the effort “doesn’t appear” to affect any one party. Ms Adams suggested it would not “matter” whether the registration forms were for one party or another because their existence “increases the chance that we will have voter fraud”.

She added: “Luckily I stopped the first part. That meant getting a voter on the cards who perhaps shouldn’t have been. But the second part is whether or not someone intended to turn that request into a fraudulent vote. And for all intents and purposes, that was stopped.”

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