Election investigation update in Berks, Lancaster, Lehigh, Monroe and York voter form case

Berks County DA says referral to the Attorney General “already in process”

• Jordan Wilkie/WITF
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 BLAINE SHAHAN | Staff Photographer / LNP|LancasterOnline

District Attorney Heather Adams speaks during a news conference at the Lancaster County Commissioners meeting room at 150 N. Queen St., in Lancaster city on Friday, Oct. 25, 2024.

Berks County District Attorney John T. Adams said Thursday he is coordinating with other counties, including Lancaster, to refer an investigation into fraudulent voter registration forms to the Pennsylvania Office of the Attorney General.

This is the first update on voter fraud allegations in Berks, Lancaster, Monroe and York counties in more than two months. The similar nature of the cases across jurisdictions, Adams said, is part of his reasoning for referring the case to the state AG’s office.

The move comes as incoming Republican Attorney General-elect Dave Sunday prepares to take office Tuesday, replacing Democrat Michelle Henry.

Adams and the district attorneys of Lancaster, Monroe and York counties are all Republicans, and when asked whether he and his fellow district attorneys had been coordinating with Henry or Sunday, he declined to answer.

Lancaster County District Attorney Heather Adams and the state AG’s office also declined to respond.

Heather Adams and the Lancaster County commissioners first alerted the public to the potential fraud at a news conference Oct. 25, when they announced the county elections office had received 2,500 voter registration forms in a single batch earlier that week. A portion of those forms, Adams said, appeared to include inaccurate or possibly fraudulent information, though she did not say exactly how many.

The announcement came less than two weeks ahead of the Nov. 5 general election and drew outrage from Republicans nationwide.

Heather Adams said her office was launching an investigation and that she was “ aware of at least two other counties that received similar applications that are currently being investigated.”

In the days that followed, Berks, Monroe and York counties released statements saying they also had received several thousand questionable voter registration forms and had referred the issue to their respective district attorneys. State Sen. Jarrett Coleman released a statement saying Lehigh County faced the same issue.

John Adams said Thursday that having the state agency take over the case would be a better use of resources.

“A number of us have agreed that the Office of Attorney General should be the lead investigative agency, and we expect that they will be taking the lead in regard to this investigation,” Adams said.

He said Lancaster County agrees, but he did not mention the other counties with open investigations. He said the referral to the attorney general is “already in process.” 

Lancaster County’s investigation remains open and county officials may provide an update next week, according to Erik Yabor, a spokesman for the district attorney’s office. He did not confirm John Adams’ assertion that the Lancaster office has planned with other counties to refer the case to the state attorney general.

The Office of Attorney General has original jurisdiction to enforce the Pennsylvania Election Code, according to spokesman Brett Hambright.

Lehigh County 

Lehigh County District Attorney Gavin Holihan said Thursday that his office is still investigating the forms and does not expect to bring charges against the people who filed them.

Holihan, a Democrat, has not communicated with other counties who received the forms, and has not contacted the Office of the Attorney General about referring the case to the state.

Holihan described a problem with how collecting voter registrations works. Voter registration groups hire canvassers to register people to vote. Depending on how those groups operate, they may give canvassers financial incentives to collect high numbers of registrations, while failing to ensure quality control.

Four groups submitted 1,800 voter registration forms at the Oct. 21 deadline, Holihan said, and his investigation found forms from three of the groups had problems.

“ What we haven’t figured out is whether it’s a larger, systemic problem with the organizations themselves and they know that what they’re doing is fraudulent,” Holihan said. 

Regardless of whether they bring charges, Holihan said he expects to notify the attorney general of the investigation’s findings.

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