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Trump is amplifying unproven election fraud claims on social media

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Former President Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee are ramping up claims of voter fraud in several key Pennsylvania counties a week before Election Day, Nov. 5.

“They’ve already started cheating,” Trump told his audience in Allentown, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday night.

Trump has also stoked fears on social media.

“Really bad stuff.” WHAT’S GOING ON IN PENNSYLVANIA??? Law enforcement must do their job immediately!!! WOW!!!” Trump wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The state has asked for patience as investigations into thousands of potentially fraudulent voter registration applications continue in Lancaster and possibly other counties.

At a news conference Friday, Lancaster County officials announced that more than half of the roughly 2,500 voter registrations received in two groups near the deadline appeared to be fraudulent. Election officials identified suspicious applications because they had the same handwriting, voter signatures that didn't match those on file, or because they contained incorrect addresses or Social Security numbers. The district believes the submissions came from a single voter registration organization.

Berks and York County officials have also said they are reviewing a large volume of voter registration and absentee ballot applications.

Trump and members of his campaign have also shared several social media videos from Pennsylvania in recent days alleging problems with local election administration.

In a news conference Wednesday, Pennsylvania Republican Al Schmidt urged voters to make sure they get information from trusted sources.

“We know that there is already a lot of misinformation and disinformation about the Pennsylvania election, and that will likely continue in the coming days and weeks,” Schmidt said. “In the last 24 hours, we have seen several videos shared widely online that lacked proper context or were inaccurate, leading to false narratives…spreading videos and other information without context, sharing social posts that with “Lies were filled with half-truths or even open truths and are harmful to our representative democracy.”

A viral video circulating online that appears to show the destruction of mail-in ballots in Bucks County has been labeled a hoax by federal law enforcement.

More: Republicans in Pennsylvania fail to withdraw foreign ballots for audit

The eastern Pennsylvania counties at the center of Trump and RNC claims are among the crucial swing counties expected to decide which presidential candidate wins the state. Pennsylvania has 19 electoral votes, the most of any swing state, and polls show it trailing between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.

In 2020, Trump relied largely on the Texas v. Pennsylvania case, drafted by lawyers with ties to his campaign, to overturn the results in his favor. The lawsuit alleged that Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin violated the United States Constitution by changing election procedures through non-legislative means. The Supreme Court refused to hear this. The Washington Post also reported that Trump pressured Pennsylvania House Speaker Bryan Cutler to overturn the results and install electors loyal to Trump, but Cutler refused.

“The Trump campaign appears to be setting the stage for a repeat of 2020,” Robert Speel, an associate political science professor at Penn State Behrend, told USA TODAY. “If the Electoral College relies on Kamala Harris winning Pennsylvania, I think the Trump campaign is laying some groundwork to challenge the Pennsylvania results.”

Mail-in ballots

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley told a cheering crowd at the same Trump campaign rally in Allentown that the party was filing “a huge lawsuit” against Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

There is no early voting in Pennsylvania, as is the case in many states. Instead, voters can request a mail-in ballot in person at the election office, receive it and then return it during the same trip. The time-intensive process has led to hours-long lines, particularly as Trump has pushed Republicans to vote early.

Bucks County Republicans made claims online about voter intimidation and disenfranchisement through long lines on the last day voters could request mail-in ballots, Tuesday, Oct. 29. In one area, the line closed early around 2:30 p.m switched off

On Wednesday, the Bucks County Common Pleas Court found that Bucks County violated state election law when it turned away voters who chose to vote and extended the county's in-person filing deadline to Friday, 5 p.m Clock.

The swing county narrowly supported Biden in 2020 and Clinton in 2016 and has voted for a Democrat in every presidential election since 1992.

Neighboring Lehigh County asked a judge on Tuesday to extend the deadline there until Wednesday because several streets in downtown Allentown that were closed for Trump's rally were blocking access to the election office. The judge agreed.

More: Missing secrecy sleeves: GOP asks Supreme Court to block repeats for naked ballots in Pennsylvania

Democratic Govs. Josh Shapiro and Schmidt had told counties to allow any voter who was in line by the 5 p.m. deadline to submit an absentee ballot application. Bucks County said Tuesday that any voter in line by 5 p.m. would be allowed to request an absentee ballot.

However, according to the lawsuit, some Bucks County voters who were in line at 5 p.m. were turned away.

Voters in Pennsylvania can drop off mail-in ballots in person or at drop boxes until 8:00 p.m. on Election Day.

Voter suppression claims

The Trump campaign and RNC also seized on Tuesday's arrest of Valerie Biancaniello, a Republican state committeewoman and RNC delegate, at a polling station in Delaware County, Pennsylvania.

Whatley shared a video of the woman in handcuffs on .”

“This is voter suppression from the left. Don’t be turned away,” he wrote.

A Delaware County spokesman did not respond to requests for comment.

Jim Allen, the Delaware County elections director, told local affiliate NBC10 that other people in line complained about her behavior, including her telling people who to vote for.

“The park police approached the person and told them to obey the rules or leave and they said they wouldn't walk and they wouldn't stop, so he was charged with disorderly conduct,” Allen said.

Biancaniello said on social media that she was briefly arrested and was told she would face disorderly conduct charges.

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