Former President Donald Trump mentioned Republicans on his aspect caught rampant voter dishonest in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
“They’ve already began dishonest in Lancaster,” Trump mentioned at an Oct. 29 rally in Allentown, Pennsylvania. “They’ve cheated. We caught them with 2,600 votes. We caught them chilly, 2,600 votes. … And each vote was written by the identical particular person.”
Trump then mentioned sarcastically, “I ponder how that occurred? It have to be a coincidence.”
Earlier within the day, Trump made related feedback on X, writing that Lancaster County was “caught with 2600 Faux Ballots and Types, all written by the identical particular person.”
Trump’s statements about ballots are incorrect. Lancaster officers mentioned that they have been investigating suspect voter registration purposes — which aren’t the identical as ballots.
Join PolitiFact texts
We requested the Trump marketing campaign to supply proof of two,600 fraudulent ballots forged in Lancaster and received no response.
Trump might have been drawing from Lancaster County election officers’ preliminary Oct. 25 media assertion saying a press convention that day.
“The Board of Elections and District Legal professional will present an replace on how these ballots have been recognized, remoted, and investigated,” it acknowledged.
However Lancaster County spokesperson Michael Fitzpatrick mentioned that the assertion was corrected on the county’s web site and social media feeds inside minutes to say “purposes” relatively than “ballots.” He mentioned it was a typo.
“It’s simply purposes,” Fitzpatrick advised PolitiFact.
By the point Trump spoke days later, it was clear from official statements and media studies that the Lancaster investigation was about registration purposes — not ballots.
As a battleground state in what polls present is a really shut presidential election between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, Pennsylvania is below intense scrutiny. It has 19 electoral votes, probably the most of any battleground state, and its election processes have been a supply of a number of false claims.
Lancaster County launched investigation into voter registration purposes
Lancaster County prosecutors and election officers mentioned in an Oct. 25 assertion after the press convention that they have been reviewing 2,500 voter registration kinds for “suspected voter registration fraud” that have been dropped off at or close to the voter registration deadline.
Employees members observed that quite a few purposes appeared to have the identical handwriting and have been stuffed out on the identical day. Among the purposes have been from beforehand registered voters and their signatures didn’t match those on file, county officers mentioned.
Some purposes contained right private identification data resembling voters’ addresses, however the folks listed on the purposes knowledgeable detectives that they didn’t request or fill out the kinds.
Lancaster County District Legal professional Heather Adams mentioned investigators discovered issues with 60% of registrations that they had reviewed, however she didn’t say what number of had been investigated. Nonetheless, Adams mentioned that some registration purposes have been legit and {that a} preliminary investigation signaled that these registration purposes got here from paid canvassers. She didn’t title them.
Many of the officers’ statements on the press convention made it clear that their investigation was about purposes to register — not votes forged.
Nonetheless, Lancaster County Commissioner Josh Parsons, chairman of the board, mentioned, “We remoted and contained all suspected fraudulent ballots,” once more echoing that phrase “ballots.”
Commissioner Ray D’Agostino mentioned on the information convention that the purposes weren’t for one celebration alone.
Folks full voter registration utility kinds after they register to vote; a poll is a report of individuals’s votes. Election officers mentioned that the suspect voter registration purposes have been put aside as officers investigated them.
We confirmed with Fitzpatrick, Lancaster County’s spokesperson, that if officers suspect {that a} voter registration utility is fraudulent, that one who utilized is just not registered to vote and never despatched a poll.
The same investigation is underway in York County, Pennsylvania.
Kyle Miller, a state coverage advocate in Pennsylvania for Defend Democracy, an advocacy group for honest elections, mentioned the system labored as supposed in Lancaster and York.
“The county election officers correctly reviewed and investigated any suspected fraudulent registrations proving that our system of checks is working to maintain the PA election safe,” Miller wrote in an e-mail.
However election legislation specialists additionally mentioned paid canvassers generally submit fraudulent voter registrations. Probably the most well-known case of that was with ACORN, the Affiliation of Group Organizations for Reform Now — a number of staff have been convicted of voter registration fraud throughout a number of states and the group dissolved in 2010. Some states have set legal guidelines to control voter registration drives by exterior teams.
“There have been fraudulent registrations submitted up to now, typically by paid circulators who’re making an attempt to supply kinds in order that they receives a commission,” UCLA election legislation professor Richard Hasen mentioned in an e-mail. “I’m not conscious of a single case the place a fraudulently submitted registration type led to a fraudulently forged poll in elections. ‘Mickey Mouse’ might attempt to register, however he doesn’t present as much as vote on election day.”
The Middle for an Knowledgeable Public on the College of Washington discovered that each liberal and conservative social media accounts have used the investigations to unfold rumors.
Investigators had but to determine any suspect or describe any partisan motivation.
Our ruling
Trump mentioned that in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, “We caught them with 2,600 votes. We caught them chilly, 2,600 votes. … And each vote was written by the identical particular person.”
Lancaster County election officers are investigating 2,500 voter registration kinds for “suspected voter registration fraud.”
In an early communication from the county’s elections workplace, a press launch mistakenly described the issue as being with “ballots.” However officers mentioned quickly after that the phrase “ballots” was a typo and subsequent statements mentioned “purposes” as an alternative.
Officers mentioned that the registration purposes they’re reviewing had been put aside, which implies the folks they symbolize weren’t registered.
By the point Trump spoke days later, it was clear from official statements and media studies that the Lancaster investigation was about registration purposes, not ballots. Trump has offered no proof of two,600 fraudulent or pretend ballots being forged in Lancaster.
We fee this declare False.
RELATED: All of our fact-checks about Pennsylvania
