October 26, 2024
Lancaster County spokesman Jason Bowie announced Friday they are investigating a massive voter registration fraud case involving more than 2,500 questionable voter registrations. The investigation — which could include other local counties — has sent election security concerns through the roof in Pennsylvania as law enforcement calls for wider review.
Lancaster County officials said in a press conference on Friday that the investigation had turned up thousands of potentially fraudulent registrations, most with similar handwriting and no signatures. The Lancaster County Attorney William Hansley refused to identify the two voter registration groups suspected of circulating the false ballots but asked Pennsylvania Secretary State Al Schmidt to warn other counties about the possibility of a proliferation of false voters.
“The extent of this scheme is concerning,” Hansley said, urging Schmidt to prioritize election integrity over politics in the wake of the discovery. Hansley’s call comes amid accusations that the Secretary of State’s office has not provided enough support in response to the investigation. Coverage of the press conference, reported by Fox43 News, details Hansley’s critique, which included warnings that the fraud investigation may expand to at least two neighboring counties.
The Lancaster County case echoes other fraud cases in the last few years. The Gateway Pundit in August 2023, stated that Michigan-based GBI Strategies hacked voters in several states including Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Georgia. In Michigan, where the hacking is believed to have spanned several cities, state police found voter lists in a handwritten-matching style with unverifiable data that suggested a deliberate voter suppression scheme. Evidence was suppressed and the Michigan case ended up in the FBI where, according to some, there was no real follow-up.
This year, The Gateway Pundit also uncovered the same voter fraud with Ohio-based Black Fork Strategies. They’re the people being investigated by the Ohio Secretary of State for hundreds of bogus registrations that Ohio’s Hamilton County election officials identified for the same handwriting and possible duplicates. Hamilton County Director of Elections Sherry Poland pointed out the anomalies, unearthing a stack of flagged registrations at a recent public board meeting and underscoring Ohio’s general election security concerns.
All these cases in several states has led Republicans and election integrity advocates to press for an exhaustive investigation — including a federal RICO investigation into possible collusion among false registration groups. The problems, they say: poor tracking of voter registration drives and mail-in ballots spawned new flaws in the US election process.
Election security advocates like the non-profit Public Interest Legal Foundation suggest that a system overhaul is needed to defend the electoral process. They propose to tighten checks and balances, more oversight of third-party registration groups, and criminal penalties for fraud registrations in order to ensure the integrity of elections. Public Interest Legal Foundation President J. Christian Adams has also, time and again, expressed worries about voter-roll integrity, writing that “incomplete oversight opens doors for abuse.”
During the investigation, Lancaster County officials will work with state officials to determine exactly how far the registration problems went. The attorney William Hansley wants more money to fund the investigation and asks that other counties step in to prevent it from happening.
Lancaster County’s investigation is symptomatic of an overall need for extra scrutiny and verification during the voter registration process ahead of Election Day. Voter registration fraud is on the rise and suggests something more serious for our nation as elections officials and lawmakers consider what’s next for free and fair elections.
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