Pennsylvania voter fraud investigation into ‘overload’ of applications

York County in the crucial state of Pennsylvania is investigating a “surge” of voter registration forms and ballot requests sent to the elections office after another county. received thousands of voter registration forms that have been flagged for possible fraud.

The York County elections office received a “large shipment of thousands of election-related materials from a third-party organization,” including voter registration forms and ballots, York County Chief Executive Julie Wheeler said in a statement to the York’s daily record.

“As with all mail-in ballots, our staff follows a process to ensure all voter registrations and mail-in ballots are legal. That process is currently underway. If suspected fraud is identified, we will alert the Public Prosecution Service, which will then initiate an investigation.”

Pennsylvania is a crucial battleground in next week’s election and both vice presidents Kamala Harris And Donald Trump are seeking the state’s 19 electoral votes, in what polls show is an extremely close race.

Wieler said Fox 43 on Monday: “It is not unusual to receive large stacks of voter registrations or large stacks of requests for mail-in ballots, it was just an overload of registrations from one particular organization.”

She added: “We need to do our homework before we go and make accusations when we don’t have the data to back it up.”

Wheeler has been contacted via email for further comment.

Wheeler’s comments come as an investigation is underway in Lancaster County, where officials said fraudulent voter registrations were found between 2,500 forms who arrived at the county elections office in Pennsylvania shortly before the Oct. 21 deadline to register to vote.

Election workers had “noticed that numerous applications appeared to have the same handwriting, were filled out on the same day with an unknown signature, and that some were previously registered voters (…) and that the signatures on file did not match the signatures on the application ,” Lancaster County District Attorney Heather Adams, an elected official Republicanhe said at a news conference on Friday.

About 60 percent of the applications investigated so far have been identified as fraudulent, Adams said, although she did not make public the total number of applications that have been fully investigated. Her office has been contacted via email for comment.

Adams said problems with the applications include false names, false personal identification information and inaccurate addresses.

“In some cases, the applications included the correct personal identification information, such as the correct address, telephone number, date of birth, driver’s license number and social security number, but the individuals listed on the applications informed investigators that they did not requested the form. she said. “They did not complete the form and verify that the signature on the form was not theirs.”

She said the fraudulent registrations are believed to be linked to a “large-scale recruitment operation” dating back to June. However, she said most of the applications date back to August 15 and the majority came from Lancaster residents.

It “appears to be an organized effort at this point,” Adams said, but noted the investigation is ongoing. “We will investigate who exactly participated and how far it reaches,” she said.

Adams said two other counties, which she did not name, had received similar applications that are currently being investigated.