Officials in Lancaster County, Pa., are investigating about 2,500 voter registration forms dropped off in two batches at the last minute before registration closed on Oct. 21 to determine whether they were fraudulent.
Lancaster County District Attorney Heather Adams said in a statement that "numerous applications appeared to have the same handwriting and other details, like addresses, appeared incorrect on some applications."
The allegedly fraudulent registrations were part of a paid canvassing effort. In most cases, the canvassers are paid based on the number of registrations they hand in. According to Adams, the "fraudulent" registrations were part of a “large-scale canvassing operation" dating back to June.
It's not unusual for paid canvassers to pad their registration totals with fake applications. Most, like these, are easily caught. These canvassers are not criminal masterminds.
It's unclear at this point which canvassing companies are involved and who they were canvassing for.
A large number of suspicious voter registration applications were dropped off at the county elections office near Monday's deadline, county officials said. An investigation by the district attorney's office found incorrect addresses, false identification information, false names and names that did not match Social Security information.
The officials said one or two organizations that conducted registration drives in the county in recent months were responsible for the applications. They did not name the organizations.
The district attorney did not provide information on who was funding the canvassers but asked anyone who had been approached about suspicious registrations to contact her office.
“We have confirmed violation of our crimes code as well as our elections code. We have all available detectives working on this. We are all hands on deck so that we can properly assess the validity of these applications in a timely manner,” Adams said.
After an initial investigation, it was determined that about 60% of the applications were fraudulent, with some legitimate registration forms mixed in. Adams says that the genuine registrations will be processed normally.
There is some indication that it wasn't just individual canvassers who turned in fraudulent forms.
The effort to submit the fraudulent voter registration forms "appears to be an organized effort at this point," Adams said.
"But of course, it's an ongoing investigation and we'll be looking into who exactly participated it and how far up it goes," she said.
When WGAL reporter Barbara Barr asked Lancaster County Commissioner Ray D'Agostino whether this involved one party or another, he said:
"I can say it, it does not appear at this point. It, it doesn't seem that it's any one party. In some cases, they're registering in different parties. In some cases, they're just changing an address or at least appearing to change an address."
Adams added that in a general election it wouldn't really matter which party the voter was registering with. She said the fact that there were phony registrations at all increased the risk of voter fraud
Lancaster County used to be solidly Republican, but as the county has diversified, it now only leans GOP.
It doesn't appear that either party is to blame.
"I can say it, it does not appear at this point. It doesn't seem that it's any one party. In some cases, they're registering in different parties. In some cases, they're just changing an address or at least appearing to change an address," said Lancaster County Commissioner Ray D'Agostino.
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