Pennsylvania counties investigating possible fraudulent voter registration applications

Four Pennsylvania counties are investigating possible fraudulent voter applications and mail-in ballot applications in the days and weeks leading up to Election Day.

On Tuesday, Monroe County District Attorney Mike Mancuso announced that about 30 irregular voter applications and mail-in ballot request forms are being investigated by his office, with several of them "found to be fraudulent." One applicant was deceased and several forms were from one person.

"A company calling itself 'Field and Media Corps' a subsidiary of Fieldcorps, an Arizona based organization, working out of Lancaster County, in turn was responsible for submitting the forms in question to county officials," Mancuso said.

York County is also investigating a large delivery it received of voter registration forms and mail-in ballot applications.

“We are committed to ensuring the integrity, safety and security of our elections," York County President Commissioner Julie Wheeler said in a statement on Friday. "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 a statement on Tuesday, saying, "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."

Meanwhile, in Lancaster County, prosecutors said Friday they had uncovered a large-scale scheme to submit fraudulent voter applications that were collected at shopping malls and other locations. Lancaster County District Attorney Heather Adams told a news conference that detectives have found about 60% of some 2,500 voter registrations submitted in recent days to the county's election office were fraudulent.

Adams added that she was aware of at least two other counties that may have similar concerns about recent voter registration applications dropped off in large batches.

Cambria County, Pa., also rejected 21 voter registration applications earlier this month after the district attorney’s office investigated and found them to be fraudulent. The applications were submitted by a group after a voter registration event, but the name of the group was undisclosed.