Voter registration investigation ongoing, 6 months in

Attorney General Dave Sunday took statewide control of the investigation when he took office on January 21.

• Jordan Wilkie/WITF
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 Courtesy candidate Facebook page

Republican attorney general candidate Dave Sunday

An investigation into allegedly fraudulent voter registration forms in five Pennsylvania counties turned six months old this week, but the state’s top prosecutor said he can’t provide any details on it. 

In October, less than two weeks before Election Day, officials in the counties announced that large numbers of possibly fraudulent voter registration forms were submitted at the registration deadline. 

None of the suspicious forms were processed, the counties said at the time, but the announcement was seized on by Donald Trump’s campaign as evidence that Democrats were committing voter fraud to win Pennsylvania’s 19 electoral votes.

State Attorney General Dave Sunday’s office on Tuesday said he can’t provide additional detail on the ongoing investigation. 

“ I can’t speak to that right now. That’s it,” Sunday said on April 4 after he spoke at a gathering of Republican activists and politicians. “Now, when the time comes, if and when I can, I certainly will.” 

No charges will be filed in one of the five counties — Lehigh — “because there doesn’t appear to be any intent to fraudulently cast votes,” District Attorney Gavin Holihan said Wednesday. He is confident no voter fraud occurred because faulty forms were caught by the voter registration office, he said. 

The Attorney General’s office took control of the investigations from three counties — Berks, Lancaster and York — on Jan. 21, the same day Sunday was sworn into office. 

Sunday, a Republican, previously served as York County’s district attorney when that county announced it also had an open investigation into the registration forms. All three counties are led by Republican commissioners.

The fifth county, Monroe, did not respond to questions to its district attorney’s office regarding the current status of its investigation. 

Ethical questions and election influence

The potentially fraudulent forms became national news in late October when Lancaster County District Attorney Heather Adams announced a criminal investigation shortly before Election Day. 

Adams says she held the Oct. 25 press conference to send a message that her county’s elections were secure and to alert other Pennsylvania counties to potential voter registration fraud. 

But Bruce Green, a legal ethics expert at Fordham Law School in New York, questioned the decision to make the investigation public. 

“ It looks political, it looks like you’re handing one party or another something that’s going to give them a rhetorical benefit in the election or that that’s otherwise going to potentially influence voters,” Green said.

There are rules that limit what federal prosecutors can say publicly before an election, according to Green. In the U.S. Department of Justice, there is a prohibition on announcing political investigations within 60 days of an election, and violations of this expectation in Pennsylvania in September 2020 were reviewed by the federal Office of the Inspector General. But state and county prosecutors have tremendous discretion, with restraints being self-imposed, he said. 

Adams did not answer questions as to whether she also contacted other counties. As for the timing of the announcement, Adams said it was a warning for potential bad actors to not try to influence the election and as a heads up to the public to check the accuracy of their voter registration. 

There were several mechanisms to do so, including contacting organizations or agencies that coordinate across counties, like the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania or the Department of State, which assists counties in running elections. Pennsylvania also had a PA Election Threats Task Force made up of state and federal partners, and each county was part of a federally funded information sharing network for election security.

For days after Adams’ announcement, rumors and accusations spread online.

Then a candidate Trump mischaracterized the situation during a press conference and then in two social media posts, falsely claiming fraudulent ballots were cast in Lancaster and York counties. 

Voter fraud is extremely rare and there is no evidence that the few incidents detected could influence statewide elections, according to the Department of State. Anyone aware of election irregularities can report them using the state’s online form. 

Counties each manage their own voter registration data that gets reported into a statewide system managed by the Department of State. 

“The counties’ process to flag and investigate potentially fraudulent voter registration applications show the safeguards built into our election system are working,” according to a spokesperson for the department.

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