PITTSBURGH — Lancaster County officials announced an investigation Friday after election workers found some 2,500 voter applications they suspect are fraudulent.
Two batches of applications were dropped off last minute at the county elections office to meet Pennsylvania’s Oct. 21 voter-registration deadline, officials reported at a Friday news conference.
District Attorney Heather Adams said investigators found problems with 60% of the voter-registration forms they’ve reviewed so far, including incorrect addresses, false identification information, false names and names that don’t match Social Security information.
“Staff noticed that numerous applications appeared to have the same handwriting [and] were filled out on the same day,” Adams said.
“It appears to be an organized effort,” she went on, noting one or two organizations that conducted recent county-registration drives were responsible and believed to be active in two other counties.
“Concerns were raised during the staff’s normal process to review and enter applications into the Statewide Uniform Registry of Electors System and law enforcement was alerted,” county election officials said.
