Fraudulent voter registration forms in PA have spawned as far as Arizona

ABC15 is learning about the fraudulent voter registration investigations in Pennsylvania that have ties to an Arizona company.

ABC15 has confirmed that investigations are ongoing both here and in Pennsylvania into a Valley company accused of improper registration and mailing in voter application forms.

The Lancaster County District Attorney has announced an investigation in an “orchestrated effort to file approximately 2,500 voter registration applications at or near the voter registration deadline.”

“There is no evidence to indicate any kind of widespread voter fraud, if any at all,” Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt told CNN this weekend. “Lancaster has done what any other county would do, which is to investigate and ensure that potentially fraudulent voter registration applications are not processed.”

The Monroe County District Attorney said, “The Monroe County Board of Elections has identified approximately 30 irregular forms.” The prosecutor went on to say: “The application forms were found to be fraudulent because they were not authorized by the persons designated as applicants. In at least one instance, the named applicant is actually deceased.”

The district attorney identified Field+Media Corps as the “Arizona-based organization working in Lancaster County, which in turn was responsible for sending the forms in question to county officials.”

York County, PA confirmed to ABC15 that they also have an investigation into voter registration forms.

Field+Media Corps’ website appears to be down, and ABC15’s attempts to contact the company were unsuccessful. A press release lists Mesa Vice Mayor Francisco Heredia as the company’s CEO. Attempts to reach Heredia were unsuccessful on Friday.

The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office told ABC15 there is an ongoing investigation into Field+Media Corps at the local level. The Attorney General’s Office confirmed to ABC15 that voter registration forms from Mohave and Navajo counties submitted by Field+Media Corps last year have been sent to the AG’s office for investigation. But they were deferred to the Maricopa County District Attorney’s office to investigate because the forms were originally filed in Maricopa County before being sent to Mohave and Navajo counties.

Monroe County, PA, says several of the registration forms were traced to one person.

“Voter registration for both parties is such an important part of the campaign,” said Arizonan Nathan Sproul. Controversy surrounded Sproul’s firms in both 2004 and 2012 as they registered hundreds of thousands of voters in a matter of weeks.

“It’s like building an airplane as it’s taking off from the carrier,” Sproul said of the rush to register.

His organizations have been dogged by allegations of fraud. Sproul has never been charged, but says registration mistakes are rarely harmful, but more often the result of carelessness or laziness on the part of people hired to register voters in the field.

“The easiest thing for them to do in this situation is to go out and make up fictitious names, fictitious addresses and send them out,” Sproul said. “But it certainly looks like in Pennsylvania that the system seems to be working not just in one county, but in multiple counties. So I think that’s good for democracy and good for voting on Election Day.”

The RNC sent ABC15 the following statement Friday afternoon:

“Authorities in Pennsylvania are investigating an alleged fraudulent voter registration scheme and have named a far-left consulting group, Field+Media Corps, as the organization submitting fraudulent registration forms. These announced investigations raise serious questions: Who is funding these efforts? Is the group active in other states? Is there any connection with leftist black money groups?

These are serious allegations that deserve an immediate and robust investigation to determine whether laws have been broken. If so, those responsible must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

The RNC Election Integrity team is closely monitoring these investigations. The most important elections in the history of our country are four days away. These investigations must be done immediately so that Pennsylvanians — and Americans across the country — can trust the process and trust the results.

Voters deserve transparency and accountability in our elections.”