YORK, Pa. — York County’s Office of Elections recently received a large delivery containing thousands of voter registration forms and mail-in ballot applications from a third-party group.
“It’s not unusual to get large stacks of voter registrations or large stacks of requests for mail-in ballots, it’s just this was an overabundance of registrations from one particular organization," said York County President Commissioner Julie Wheeler.
The county is now taking a closer look at those forms and applications.
“We’re in a phase now where we need to do our homework before we go and make accusations when we don’t have the data to back it up," Wheeler said.
A full statement from Wheeler is below:
"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 also released its own statement:
"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."
This comes after Lancaster County officials announced they are investigating approximately 2,500 voter registration forms for potential fraud. The batch of applications, which had false names, incorrect addresses and other discrepancies, is being traced back to a large-scale canvassing operation.
“It appears to be an organized effort at this point but of course, it’s an ongoing investigation and we’ll be looking into who participated and how far up it goes," said Heather Adams, the Lancaster County District Attorney, at a press conference on Friday, Oct. 25.
The Pennsylvania Department of State released a statement regarding the issues in Lancaster County, saying in part:
"The Department of State is aware of the allegations of voter registration fraud identified by the Lancaster County Board of Elections and its District Attorney on Friday. The Department has been in contact with the county and is offering support in its ongoing investigation. The Department applauds the efforts of the election staff for their diligent work in spotting this potential fraud and bringing it to the attention of law enforcement. The Department guidance in cases like this is for counties to immediately contact law enforcement, which is exactly what Lancaster County officials did. As their officials noted, grassroots efforts to register voters across the Commonwealth are important and legitimate, and the safeguards in the system allowed them to identify and isolate these suspicious applications."
Secretary of State Al Schmidt addressed the investigation in a virtual media update on Monday.
“We still don’t have a lot of details about these implications so it’s important to not rush to judgment. We hope for a speedy and accurate conclusion to the investigation,” he said.