Pennsylvania’s voter registration investigations have led to a wave of misinformation

HARRISBURG, PA. Investigations into potential voter registration fraud in three Pennsylvania counties have become a source of misinformation online. including from Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

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

What do we know?

Lancaster County District Attorney Heather Adams, a Republican-elect, said election workers raised concerns about the two sets voter registration applications because of what she called numerous similarities. In total, they check about 2,500 forms.

Lancaster officials said they alerted two other counties to review similar registration applications. In Monroe County, election officials found about 30 inappropriate forms and forwarded them to the district attorney’s office.

York County Chief Clerk Greg Monsky confirmed this week that his county is reviewing the suspects’ forms. County Commissioner Julie Wheeler released a statement saying voter registration forms and mail-in ballot applications were among a “large shipment containing thousands of election-related materials” that the county election office received from a third-party organization. She said if the audit reveals suspected fraud, the district attorney will investigate.

The York County Prosecutor’s Office said it was in contact with the board of commissioners and the Elections Office, but did not say whether a criminal investigation had been launched.

Who dropped off the forms in question?

Lancaster County officials have not released who they suspect is responsible. In a text message exchange with The Associated Press, Wheeler attributed the documents obtained by York County 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.

In an email Tuesday, Field+Media Corps Executive Director Francisco Heredia said his Mesa, Ariz.-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 does get in touch, he said, he will “work with local officials to help resolve any differences to allow eligible people to vote.” He said six or seven other organizations also operate in the area.

In an emailed response, a spokeswoman for the Everybody Votes Campaign said this week that officials in Lancaster, York or Monroe counties had not contacted her about any ongoing investigation and had no additional information on the forms.

What did Trump say about the investigation?

Representatives of Trump’s presidential campaign and Vice President Kamala Harris visited Pennsylvania more than any other state because it has the most voters of all the battlefields.

Earlier this week, Trump tweeted about the issue on his Truth Social platform, saying that Lancaster County was “caught with 2,600 fake ballots and forms, all written by one person.” There is no reason to believe that ballots are part of what Lancaster is studying.

They said 2,500 voter registration forms had been earmarked for investigation, but did not say how many were problematic. Some of those forms have been deemed legitimate and are being processed as usual, Lancaster officials said. Voter registration forms are not ballots.

On the campaign trail in Allentown on Tuesday, the former president said, “They’ve already started cheating in Lancaster. They cheated. We caught them with 2,600 votes. No, we caught them cold. 2600 votes. Think about it, think about it. And each voice was written by one person.”

To be clear, Lancaster is looking at voter registration applications, not “votes.” Lancaster officials said some of the forms contained fictitious 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 district attorney, 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 provides different penalties depending on the provision, but noted that a violation of one section can result in a 10-year disqualification.

Is voter registration fraud a real problem?

Former Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Bookwar 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 has led to problems.

Fake registration forms add to the workload and frustration of county election workers, she said, but stressed that does not increase the risk of someone voting incorrectly.

Election officials in Pennsylvania who receive the new voter registration form verify the voter’s identity and address. They also send mail to the address listed on the form, she said. New voters and those who vote at a new polling station must present an identity card and their signature is checked against the voter’s book.

“There are so many checks and balances in the process to ensure the security of the election and protect integrity,” Boukvar said.

Al Schmidt, Pennsylvania’s top elections official, noted the massive amount of misinformation being spread in the run-up to Tuesday’s election and urged people to get information from “trusted sources.”

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

Schmidt emphasized various checks to ensure that only eligible voters cast their ballots and only one ballot per voter is counted.