'Careful process': Pennsylvania county provides update on investigation into suspicious batch of voter forms

The chairman of a Pennsylvania county elections board updated voters Monday on the status of 2,500 voter registration and absentee ballot applications that were flagged as potentially fraudulent last month, prompting a county and statewide investigation in the crucial swing state.

At a news conference, Lancaster County Commissioner Ray D'Agostino said that of the 2,500 registration and absentee ballot applications flagged as suspect, a majority of 57% were confirmed as valid and 17% were confirmed as fraudulent, he said.

The remaining 26% of voter registration and absentee ballot applications are either incomplete or unverified, he said, and are still being investigated.

“Those other two categories, quite frankly, will change based on the ongoing investigation,” D'Agostino said of the remaining applications, noting that the process of reviewing the applications is a “laborious process.”

Officials said the applications were flagged as suspicious “during staff's normal process for reviewing and submitting applications.” [a Pennsylvania database]” and law enforcement was alerted.

They found that the forms in question contained either false names, duplicate handwriting, or unverifiable or incorrect identifying information.

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Both the local district attorney's office and the Lancaster County Board of Elections have since worked to review and review the applications. County election officials also immediately notified the Pennsylvania Department of State and the state's attorney general's office last month for further investigation.

D'Agostino declined to comment further Monday on the status of those investigations, but told reporters that all people whose claims may have been affected by the investigation have been notified by the county.

The applications in question are not limited to a single party and were collected last month from various locations throughout Lancaster County.

“I cannot provide any further information at this time,” D'Agostino said Monday about the investigation, adding that county and state officials are “continuing the investigation” and are taking the matter “very seriously.”

The Pennsylvania Department of State confirmed its involvement in the investigation to Fox News Digital late last month. Lancaster County was also praised “for its diligent work in uncovering this potential fraud and educating law enforcement.”

“As the county's efforts demonstrate, there are numerous safeguards in place to ensure the integrity of our elections, and Pennsylvanians can have confidence that November's election will be safe, free and fair,” the office told Fox News.

The update in Lancaster Monday comes just days after officials in Pennsylvania's Monroe County said they were also investigating a much smaller pool of voter registration and absentee ballot applications that were rejected as potentially fraudulent.

It is assumed that there are around 30 applications in total that were discovered by the district election authority and forwarded to the public prosecutor's office for further investigation.

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Pennsylvania Attorney General Michelle Henry also tried to reassure voters in the Keystone State last week, noting in a news release Thursday that her office worked with the respective counties in the apparent attempts to submit fraudulent ballots and against all I have identified organizations that may be responsible.

“While we are not disclosing sensitive information about these investigations, we want to be clear that the investigations relate to voter registration forms and not ballots,” Henry said. “These attempts were thwarted by Pennsylvania’s security measures.”

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She added: “Investigations are ongoing and offenders found to have committed fraudulent acts will be held accountable under the law.”

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