Trump claims York County got potentially fraudulent election forms; no county confirmation
(This story was updated to add new information.)
Update
The York County elections office denied about 24 percent of a batch of 3,087 recently received voter registration applications, and they are under further review by the district attorney, according to a new release Wednesday evening. Of that number, 85 percent involved duplicate registration requests. Read more here.
Reported previously
Former President Donald Trump in a social media post alleged the York County Office of Elections and Voter Registration received "thousands of potentially fraudulent" election-related materials.
"Wow! York County, Pennsylvania, received THOUSANDS of potentially FRAUDULENT Voter Registration Forms and Mail-In Ballot Applications from a third party group," the Truth Social post states. "This is on top of Lancaster County being caught with 2600 Fake Ballots and Forms, all written by the same person. Really bad 'stuff.' WHAT IS GOING ON IN PENNSYLVANIA??? Law Enforcement must do their job, immediately!!! WOW!!!"
Lancaster County officials held a news conference last week, saying that they are investigating a large batch of voter registration forms suspected of being fraudulent. The suspect forms were dropped off at the county's board of elections office on two different occasions.
While Lancaster County officials said they have discovered fraudulent voter registration forms, they did not say they found fraudulent ballots, as Trump claimed in his social media post.
In a news release Wednesday afternoon, the Lancaster County DA's office said a review discovered hundreds of fraudulent voter applications connected to large-scale canvassing operations. "Hundreds more were unable to be verified by Detectives, meaning that none of the identification information provided on the application was able to be located (in any police or public source databases) and therefore unable to be verified," read the release. Lancaster County detectives are continuing to review suspected fraudulent applications to determine who participated in completing and providing the fraudulent applications, said the release.
In a news release Tuesday morning, the Pennsylvania Freedom Caucus said "just yesterday, York County announced it had uncovered thousands of suspected fraudulent registrations and mail ballot applications." State Rep. Dawn Keefer, a leader of the conservative Pennsylvania legislative caucus, could not immediately be reached for comment.
York County President Commissioner Julie Wheeler issued a statement on Friday saying that the local elections and voter registration office had received a large delivery of election-related materials, and it is carefully processing them.
She said Tuesday morning that she has nothing new to report and again shared the county's statement:
“We are committed to ensuring the integrity, safety and security of our elections. The York County Office of Elections and Voter Registration has received a large delivery containing thousands of election-related materials from a third-party organization. Those materials appear to include completed voter registration forms, as well as mail-in ballot applications. As with all submissions, our staff follows a process for ensuring all voter registrations and mail-in ballot requests are legal. That process is currently underway. If suspected fraud is identified, we will alert the District Attorney’s Office, which will then conduct an investigation. We will have no further comment until our internal review has been completed.”
The York County District Attorney's Office issued this statement on Tuesday morning:
"The Office of the District Attorney has been in constant contact with the York County Commissioners and York County Board of Elections regarding any potential irregularities they are seeing and observing that may necessitate further investigation by this office. As we have always done, this office will investigate any matter regarding elections that require a criminal investigation and if needed, would prosecute any cases where the evidence is sufficient to support a conviction. Regarding any specific allegations or investigation, it is the policy of this office not to comment on such specific matters but only general operating procedures. Any other questions concerning the operations of elections should be referred to the County Commissioners and/or the Board of Elections."
During an election news conference on Tuesday, Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt addressed the "continuing investigations in Lancaster and York counties into potentially fraudulent voter registration applications."
"The department has been in touch with these counties from the very beginning to provide guidance to them as they conduct their investigations, and we'll continue to support them as needed," he said. "Ultimately, the county election offices and the investigative law enforcement agencies will determine whether any criminal charges are warranted."
During the election news conference on Monday, Schmidt addressed the suspected voter registration applications that Lancaster County reported. He said it's a sign that the safeguards built into the voter registration process are working.
"We don't have a lot of details about these applications, so it's important we not rush to judgment," he said. "We hope for a speedy and accurate conclusion to the investigation and hearing from the county."
Check back later as this is a developing story.