ALLENTOWN, Pa. — The Lehigh County district attorney is investigating hundreds of suspicious voter registration applications that came in before the Oct. 21 deadline.
District Attorney Gavin Holihan and Lehigh County Chief Clerk of Elections Tim Benyo said Friday that the applications were flagged through the election office's normal vetting process.
Holihan and Benyo expressed confidence that only legitimate voters will be able to cast a ballot in the upcoming presidential election.
"These are not votes. These are applications to be allowed to vote," Holihan said.
The situation appears to mirror a case in Lancaster County where officials said officials have identified hundreds of problematic voter registration applications submitted at the deadline. A separate criminal investigation is underway there, and the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office has contacted counties to see if they're experiencing similar problems.
Benyo said Lehigh County received approximately 1,800 voter registration applications from get-out-the-vote organizations around the deadline — including about 1,500 from a single organization. Benyo said about 40% of the total were "garbage" — blatantly wrong forms that were immediately flagged.
Many of the remaining 60% had less prominent faults that require election officials to dig further, Benyo said. For example, a person could list an incorrect address, miswrite their driver's license number or give a nickname instead of their legal name.
Neither Holihan nor Benyo identified the organizations that submitted the problematic applications, though the county office does track what groups turn in the forms.
Given the high volume of applications the office has received, election staff didn't immediately recognize they were potentially dealing with an organized effort to submit false applications.
Benyo's office notified Holihan of the suspicious applications around 6 p.m. Thursday; Holihan said he and a detective met with election officials 8 a.m. Friday.
"They didn't realize it was part of a bigger national picture until recently," Holihan said.
Benyo said it's not unusual for his office to be inundated with faulty applications on the eve of an election. While the number is higher this year, it's in line with the expected high-turnout of the presidential race, he said.
State law requires election offices to accept all voter registration applications, even if they're weeks old or obviously flawed. Benyo hoped the attention the bad applications are receiving will spur lawmakers to tighten election laws so his team won't be bogged down chasing bad applications.
"Some of them are turned in without names on them, and we can't turn them away. How do we contact them?" Benyo asked.
Potential fixes would allow the county officials to reject applications that sit for days or weeks after they were filled out or are lacking essential information such as a name or address, he said.
Holihan said political campaigns often pay third-party organizations for each person they register to vote. This can create incentives for contractors to submit bogus applications to pad their numbers, he said.
However, he declined to say what potential crime he's investigating. While Pennsylvania has made it a crime to submit a fraudulent vote, there are no such restrictions on trying to register to vote.
"It's a largely unregulated field," Holihan said.
That doesn't mean bad-faith applications don't have consequences. Holihan said campaigns could be paying for bogus services, and the forms could create bureaucratic headaches for legitimate voters whose names were placed on illegitimate applications.
"If you create an application in my name, you're running the risk that you're going to disenfranchise me to vote," Holihan said.
Even if he identifies a crime has occurred, it may not prove easy to prosecute bad actors. Holihan said he'd have to prove which individuals filled out the forms and who has jurisdiction to prosecute them.
State Sen. Jarrett Coleman, R-Lehigh/Bucks, applauded county officials for their efforts to protect the election's integrity. He said he would use his position as chair of the intergovernmental committee to explore potential legislative fixes such as creating penalties for knowingly submitting falsified voter registration applications.
But for all the fears and concerns that people have over elections, he said it's important to credit civil servants when they stop bad actors ensure the sanctity of elections.
"I commend the voter registration staff for their hard work, diligence in reviewing applications and awareness that caught these invalid applications. The staff members’ swift referral to the district attorney’s office will ensure that voters are being protected," he said in a prepared statement.
