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 Pennsylvania's Lancaster County found 2,600 fraudulent ballots written by the same person.

Trump is referring to a review of about 2,500 voter registration applications that found potential fraud in Lancaster County. Preliminary results suggest investigators have identified hundreds of fraudulent applications and hundreds more that they were unable to verify.

The applications were linked to a major voter registration campaign in advance Election 2024officials said. As of Monday, November 4, no suspects have been identified.

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

Trump has repeatedly and falsely claimed that the voter registration applications were ballots, arguing that they were evidence of widespread voter fraud in the crucial battleground state.

At least six counties in Pennsylvania have announced investigations into potentially fraudulent voter registration or absentee ballot applications.

David Becker, election law editor for CBS News, 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 not widespread fraud.”

“Election officials have been diligent. They found some voter registration forms that didn't look right. said Becker.

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 filings and suspicious signatures. Just over 400 of those applications were fraudulent, officials say.

Prosecutor Heather Adams reported that some forms contained forged or incorrect information. Commissioner Ray D'Agostino said 57% of reported applications had been verified, 17% were confirmed to be fraudulent and 26% were still under review, with most suspected to be fraudulent.

York County

The DA's office is examining a quarter of the 3,087 suspicious voter registration forms. The York County Board of Election said so far 47% have been found to be legitimate, 29% had incomplete information and 24% are still under investigation. Of these, 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 consulting firm, and that all the forms were received in one batch.

News outlet Votebeat previously reported on Monskie that Field + Media Corps 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 “has not been contacted by officials in Lancaster, York or Monroe counties about any ongoing investigations and does not have any additional information regarding the forms in question.” Our partners are working diligently to ensure that all forms collected comply with all rules and regulations.”

Monroe County

Monroe County District Attorney Mike Mancuso said the county elections board classified 30 voter registration and absentee ballot application forms as “irregular.”

The DA's office is investigating the ballots because they were not authorized by the person named as the applicant. In one case, a named applicant was dead, he said. Several forms can be traced back to a specific person, he said.

Mancuso said 21 forms were filed by a Lancaster-based affiliate of Field + Media Corps. Of those, 16 were found to be fraudulent, he said on November 2nd.

Cambria County

Cambria County President Scott Hunt said 21 voter registration applications were flagged as fraudulent because information such as Social Security numbers or addresses were inconsistent and the people named did not respond to letters automatically sent by the system.

When no one responded, investigators went to the addresses listed on the forms and learned that the person named either did not live there or that they had not submitted the form, he said.

Lehigh County

The Lehigh County District Attorney's Office said it is investigating suspicious voter registration applications.

Prosecutor Gavin Holihan told CBS News that about 40% of applications received by the deadline were invalid and that number is likely to rise.

The district received between 2,500 and 3,000, he said. About 1,500 came from one organization, local media reported.

Berks County

Pennsylvania AG Michelle Henry said Berks County is among the counties where there have been “obvious attempts to submit fraudulent voter registration forms.”

According to local reporting from WFMZ-TV, county officials had flagged about 1,300 registrations as suspicious.

“I want to be clear that these are voter registration forms – people's applications to vote,” District Attorney John Adams reportedly said in a telephone interview with local Pennsylvania news outlet the Daily Voice on Friday. “These are not ballots.”