What we know about reports of fraudulent voter registration applications in Pennsylvania

Former President Donald Trump on Sunday repeated a false claim that officials in Lancaster County in Pennsylvania found 2,600 fraudulent ballots written by the same person. 

Trump is referencing a review of about 2,500 voter registration applications flagged for potential fraud in Lancaster County. Preliminary findings indicate that detectives identified hundreds of fraudulent applications and hundreds more that they were unable to verify. 

The applications were connected to a large canvassing effort to register voters ahead of the 2024 election, officials said. As of Monday, Nov. 4, no suspects have been identified. 

Voter registration forms are not the same as ballots and the forms were identified before processing, officials said. 

Trump has repeatedly and falsely alleged that the voter registration applications were ballots as he argued that it was proof of widespread voter fraud in the crucial battleground state. 

At least six counties in Pennsylvania have announced investigations into possibly fraudulent voter registration or mail-in ballot applications. 

CBS News election law contributor David Becker told CBS News Philadelphia that this shows the vetting system in the commonwealth is working, and that there are “checks and balances to ensure there is no widespread fraud.”  

“The election officials were diligent. They found some voter registration forms that did not look right. They flagged them. Some of them were legitimate…others they did not process. So no fraudulent voters are going to vote as a result of that,” Becker said. 

Here’s what we know about the investigation. 

Lancaster County

Officials said about 2,500 voter registration applications were identified as potentially fraudulent due to identical handwriting on some applications, same-day submissions, and suspicious signatures. Of that figure, officials say just over 400 of those applications were fraudulent. 

DA Heather Adams reported some forms had forged or false information. Commissioner Ray D’Agostino said 57% of flagged applications were verified, with 17% confirmed as fraudulent, and 26% are still under review, mostly suspected as being fraudulent.

York County 

The DA’s office is investigating a quarter of 3,087 suspicious voter registration forms. The York County Board of Election said so far, 47% have been found to be legitimate, 29% have incomplete information, and 24% remain under investigation. Of those, 85% are duplicate requests.

York County Chief Clerk Greg Monskie told CBS News on Friday that the forms were submitted by Field + Media Corps, an Arizona based voter outreach firm, and that the forms were all received in one batch. 

The news outlet Votebeat previously reported Monskie as saying that Field + Media Corps had submitted the forms on behalf of the Everybody Votes campaign, a national voter registration organization.

The Everybody Votes campaign told CBS News on Friday that it had “not been contacted by officials in Lancaster, York, or Monroe counties about any ongoing investigations and have no additional information on the forms in question. Our partners work diligently to ensure all forms collected comply with all rules and regulations.”

Monroe County 

Monroe County DA Mike Mancuso said the County Board of Elections identified 30 voter registration and mail-in ballot request forms as “irregular.” 

The DA’s office is investigating the ballots as they were not authorized by the person named as the applicant. In one case, a named applicant is dead, he said. Several forms have been traced to a specific person, he said.

Mancuso said 21 forms were submitted by a Lancaster-based subsidiary of Field + Media Corps. Of those, 16 have been found to be fraudulent, he said on Nov 2. 

Cambria County

Cambria County president commissioner Scott Hunt said 21 voter registration requests were flagged as fraudulent because information like social security numbers or addresses was inconsistent, and the people named did not respond to letters sent automatically by the system.

When no one responded, investigators went to the addresses listed on the forms and were told either that the person named did not live there, or did not submit the form, he said.

Lehigh County 

The Lehigh County District Attorney’s office said it is investigating suspicious voter registration applications.

DA Gavin Holihan told CBS News that around 40% of applications received around the deadline were invalid, and that number was likely to increase.

The county received between 2,500 and 3,000, he said. Around 1,500 were from one organization, local media reported.

Berks County 

The Pennsylvania AG Michelle Henry said Berks County was among the counties where there had been “apparent attempts to submit fraudulent voter registration forms.” 

County officials had flagged around 1,300 registrations as suspicious, according to local reporting from WFMZ-TV. 

“I want to be clear, these are voter registration forms — people’s applications to vote,” District Attorney John Adams reportedly said Friday in a phone call interview with local Pennsylvania news outlet Daily Voice. “These are not ballots.”