LANCASTER, Pa. — Lancaster County District Attorney Heather Adams provided an update on Wednesday on her office's investigation of approximately 2,500 fraudulent voter registration applications.
Adams said Lancaster County Detectives are continuing to review suspected fraudulent applications to determine who participated in completing and providing the fraudulent 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," Adams stated in a press release. “We are actively investigating who is responsible for this, and any speculation at this point is premature.”
Adams said her office believes that the fraudulent voter registrations are connected to large-scale canvassing operations for voter registrations dating back to June.
Election workers noticed irregularities while preparing to process the applications and immediately notified Adams' office.
At a press conference held last week with the Elections Board, Adams announced that her investigators immediately found indicators of fraud, including incorrect and non-existent addresses, false personal identification information, as well as false names and incorrect social security information.
In other cases, Adams said, applications contained accurate voter identification information, but the application was determined to be forged.
Lancaster County Detectives worked through the weekend to review applications that were suspicious or unable to be confirmed by the voter registration office, Adams said.
In addition to finding hundreds of fraudulent voter applications, 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.
If information contained on an application was verified, Adams said, the elections office was notified so that the application could be processed in a timely manner and according to law.
Anyone with information about the voter registration canvassing activities that led to the fraudulent applications is encouraged to call the Lancaster County District Attorney’s Office at 717-299-8100 or submit a tip online.
Voters who are concerned about their registration are encouraged to check their voter registration accuracy here.
If a voter still has a question about their voter registration application after visiting the Department of State’s website, they should contact the Board of Elections office at 717-288-8293.