Probe into voter registration forms leads to wave of misinformation

HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania (AP):

Investigations into potential fraud in voter registration applications in three Pennsylvania counties have become fodder for online misinformation, including from Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

Authorities in Lancaster, Monroe and York counties have released limited details, and local prosecutors are looking into whether any crimes might have occurred.

What do we know?

Lancaster County District Attorney Heather Adams, an elected Republican, said election workers raised concerns about two sets of voter registration applications because of what she described as numerous similarities. They’re examining a total of about 2,500 forms.

Lancaster officials said they alerted two other counties to check similar registration applications. In Monroe County, the Board of Elections staff identified about 30 irregular forms and referred them to the district attorney’s office.

York County Chief Clerk Greg Monskie confirmed this week that his county was reviewing suspect forms. County Commissioner Julie Wheeler issued a statement saying voter registration forms and mail-in ballot applications were among a “large delivery containing thousands of election-related materials” that the county elections office received from a third-party organsation. She said that if a review comes across suspected fraud, the district attorney will investigate.

The York district attorney’s office said it was in contact with the board of commissioners and elections office, but did not indicate if a criminal investigation had been launched.

Who dropped off the forms in question?

Lancaster County officials have not disclosed who they suspect is responsible. In a text exchange with The Associated Press, Wheeler attributed the documents that York County received to Field+Media Corps, which she said was “acting on behalf of” the Everybody Votes Campaign. Everybody Votes is a nonpartisan national organisation that promotes voter registration.

In an email Tuesday, Field+Media Corps chief executive Francisco Heredia said his Mesa, Arizona-based organisation had not been contacted by election officials in Pennsylvania counties and had no additional information on the alleged problematic forms.

If Field+Media Corps does get contacted, he said, it will “work with local officials to help resolve any discrepancies to allow eligible people to vote”. He said there were six or seven other organisations also working in the area.

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

What has Trump said about the investigations?

The presidential campaigns of Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris have visited Pennsylvania more than any other state because it has the most electors of all the battlegrounds.

Trump posted about the issue earlier this week on his Truth Social platform, saying Lancaster County was “caught with 2600 Fake Ballots and Forms, all written by the same person.” There is no reason to think ballots are part of what Lancaster is looking into.

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

During a campaign event in Allentown on Tuesday, the former president said “they’ve already started cheating in Lancaster. They’ve cheated. We caught ‘em with 2,600 votes. No, we caught them cold. 2,600 votes. Think of this, think of this. And every vote was written by the same person”.

To be clear, Lancaster is looking into voter registration applications, not “votes”. Lancaster officials said some forms contained false 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 prosecutor, said forging a voter registration application is a third-degree felony punishable by up to seven years in prison and a US$15,000 fine. She said state election law carries different penalties, depending on the provision, but noted that violating one section could result in a loss of voting privileges for 10 years.

Is voter registration fraud a real problem?

Former Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar 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 have resulted in problems.

Phony registration forms increase the workload and cause frustration for county elections workers, she said, but stressed that does not translate into a higher risk that someone will vote improperly.

Election workers in Pennsylvania who receive a new voter-registration form confirm the voter’s identity and address. They also send mail to the address listed on the form, she said. New voters, and those voting in a new precinct, must provide an ID, and their signature is checked against a poll book.

“There are so many checks and balances in the process to make sure the election is secure and integrity is protected,” Boockvar said.

Al Schmidt, Pennsylvania’s top state election official, noted the sheer volume of misinformation circulating ahead of Election Day on Tuesday and urged people to get their information from “trusted sources”.

“Spreading videos and other information that lack context, sharing social posts filled with half-truths or even outright lies is harmful to our representative democracy,” he said during a media briefing Wednesday.

Schmidt emphasised the various checks in place to ensure that only eligible voters cast ballots and only one ballot is counted per voter.