Pennsylvania county officials stated on Friday that election workers have uncovered up to 2500 voter registrations that are suspected as fraudulent.
Earlier today in a press release, the Lancaster County Elections Board said that “staff members identified and contained incidents of voter registration fraud”. Furthermore, election staff along with the district attorney’s office are looking into the extent of the fraud.
“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,” Ray D’Agostino, vice chair Lancaster County Board of Elections
For the elections of November 5, Pennsylvania is marked as a significant swing state. This highly competitive state is often the decision maker in case of a close presidential election with its chunk of 19 electoral votes among the total count of 270 votes for the win.
The district attorney of Lancaster County with the three county commissioners described the process of identifying, isolation, and investigating the suspected registration forms.
Fraudulent forms contained fake signatures along with inaccurate addresses, licenses and Social Security numbers
The county news stated that the suspicious registration arrived in two batches nearing the deadline for Pennsylvania’s voting registrations. The deadline was last Monday, October 21st. The investigation is currently trying to figure out who dropped off the forms.
D’Asgostino further stated that the investigation is using a multi-step process that involves the Lancaster County District Attorney’s Office.
The applications have identical handwriting matching with other forms. Additionally, signatures that don’t match the record of the Statewide Uniform Registry of Electors (SURE) are also used in the forms along with fake addresses, driver license and Social Security numbers.
Pennsylvania fraudulent applications were part of a major canvassing operation
District attorney Heather Adams said that there were forms with accurate information as well. However, the individuals who were listed did not request them and they verified that the signatures also did not belong to them.
Adams said that these fraudulent applications were part of a major canvassing operation that dated voters from June, although most dates are August 15 onwards. The canvassing was done at public spots like grocery stores, parks, and parking lots.
There is no confirmation about the number of forms that have undergone investigation or have been flagged among 2500. The investigation continues with both fraudulent and legitimate registrations in these batches.
The legitimate registrations have the confirmation by the listed people that they had been registered to vote with a canvasser. No canvassing organizations have been named yet.
