Donald Trump makes false claims about ballots in Lancaster County in his Truth Social post

Lancaster County was not “caught with 2,600 fraudulent ballots and forms all written by the same person,” as former President Donald Trump claimed on Truth Social Monday night.

Trump, who has a long history of spreading false information about elections in Pennsylvania, targeted Lancaster and York counties, both of which reported encountering voter registration applications that showed signs of fraud.

But Trump's post drastically overcounted the documents involved and went beyond reality by falsely claiming that Lancaster County had encountered “counterfeit ballots.”

Last week, Lancaster County officials announced they were reviewing two batches of voter registration applications totaling 2,500 registrations that were submitted just before the registration deadline.

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The district attorney said the applications in those batches showed possible signs of fraud, including double handwriting and false names and addresses, but did not say how many applications were allegedly fraudulent. Instead, officials said all ballots in the batches would be reviewed.

The batches had been dropped off by a voter engagement group that paid workers to collect applications, but officials did not name the group. Particularly during presidential election years, it is not uncommon for paid employees of such groups to submit fake applications.

However, these applications are not ballots, and there is no evidence that fraudulent voter registration forms have led to widespread voter fraud. In general, experts say, these are fraudulent registration forms are intercepted by officials or result in someone being added to the electoral roll and then removed from the electoral roll due to inactivity.

“It is a serious problem and undermines the integrity of the electoral roll. This will increase pressure on election officials to uncover this fraud,” said Michael Morley, an election law expert at Florida State University. “But even if it gets through, that’s the end of the road, so to speak. It is not part of a broader conspiracy to steal the election.”

The county's investigation appears to show the system works to prevent fraud. And despite calls in Trump's post for law enforcement to intervene, authorities are already investigating.

Trump doubled down on the false claims at a news conference in Drexel Hill on Tuesday.

“There are some bad places in Pennsylvania where some serious things have been caught or are being caught,” he said.

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Trumps truth social The post also mentioned thousands of potentially fraudulent registration forms and absentee ballot applications in York County.

York County Commissioner Julie Wheeler told the York County Dispatch last week that the county has received thousands of forms, including registration and voter applications, and is carefully reviewing the materials to ensure there is no evidence of fraud.

If fraud is suspected, law enforcement will be contacted, Wheeler said.

The false claims come at a time when misinformation about the 2024 election is on the rise, often pushed by Trump and his allies. Election officials have warned that such claims could fuel distrust in the system and lead to political violence.

Staff writer Rob Tornoe contributed to this article.