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Hundreds of voter registration applications submitted in Lancaster County last week were found to be fraudulent or forged, according to a Wednesday announcement from the Lancaster County District Attorney’s Office. The county’s board of elections notified the district attorney’s office of the possibly fraudulent applications on Oct. 22 after two batches were dropped off just before the voter registration deadline.
The batches were turned in by a voter engagement group that paid workers to gather applications, but officials have not named the group as of Wednesday. The investigation was launched after indicators of fraud — including incorrect/non-existent addresses, false personal identification information, duplicative handwriting, fake names and incorrect Social Security information — were discovered, the DA’s office said. Some of the applications in question had accurate voter information but were found to be forged.
The exact number of fraudulent or forged applications is unclear, but the DA’s office confirmed on Oct. 25 that approximately 60% of the 2,500 applications had been deemed fraudulent. In addition to the fraudulent applications, hundreds of other applications included in the two batches could not be verified by detectives due to the listed voter information not showing up in any public or police databases, the press release said.
The county’s election office was notified of all the verified voter registration applications to ensure they were processed “in a timely manner according to law.” Investigators are reviewing the instances of fraud and forgery further to determine who participated in completing and submitting the applications. “This office remains committed to using all resources to investigate these acts and will file all applicable charges should we find the necessary evidence to do so.
” District Attorney Heather L. Adams said. “We are actively investigating who is responsible for this, and any speculation at this point is premature.
” Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump turned to his Truth Social platform after the investigation was launched, where he posted that Lancaster County was “caught with 2600 Fake Ballots and Forms, all written by the same person.” However, Trump’s post exaggerated the number of impacted documents and falsely claimed Lancaster County encountered “Fake Ballots” instead of voter registration applications. Voters who are concerned about their registration are encouraged to check their voter registration accuracy at www.
pavoterservices.pa.gov/pages/voterregistrationstatus.
aspx. Anyone with further questions regarding their voter registration application should contact the Board of Elections office at 717-288-8293. Lancaster County had a record 365,000+ voters registered as of last week.
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