A number of counties throughout Pennsylvania and Arizona are investigating batches of improper voter registration kinds submitted by an Arizona-based agency in current weeks.
There isn’t any proof that the kinds led to any fraudulent ballots being forged, however former President Trump has latched onto the revelations, telling his supporters “Pennsylvania is cheating.” Officers have tied again the disputed purposes to Discipline+Media Corps, a left-leaning agency run by Mesa, Arizona Vice Mayor Francisco Heredia that additionally does work with nonpartisan voter registration organizations.
Heredia advised The Hill he hasn’t been contacted by officers in any of the counties which have flagged his group’s work.
“We are proud of our work to help expand access to voting through voter registration efforts that registered voters from all parties,” Heredia mentioned in an e mail. “We would hope that if the Recorder had this information, that we would be proactively contacted by his office. If we are contacted, we would work with local officials to help resolve any discrepancies to allow eligible people to vote.”
On Monday, Maricopa County, Ariz., turned the newest space to announce points with the corporate’s submitted kinds. The county, which spans the Phoenix space, is the swing state’s most populous space.
Recorder Stephen Richer (R) mentioned at a Monday press convention that Discipline+Media Corps performed a “significant role” within the 90,000 voter registration purposes dropped off on the state deadline.
“It is a group that we have worked with before, and we have admonished them to please, please, please submit better voter registration forms,” Richer mentioned. “To please do more quality control.”
The corporate took down its web site late final week.
“We do our best to have applicants complete the entire form to turn in to the Recorder’s office, if we have incomplete forms by law we still turn them in to their office, turning in all forms we collect,” Heredia mentioned. “On the finish of the day, we take pleasure in our work and we consider within the energy of voter registration to strengthen our elections.”
The scrutiny in Arizona adopted affirmation final week from Pennsylvania Legal professional Normal Michelle Henry (D) of obvious makes an attempt to submit fraudulent voter registration kinds in Berks, Lancaster, Monroe, and York counties.
“These attempts have been thwarted by the safeguards in place in Pennsylvania. We are working every day with our partners to ensure a fair, free, and safe election,” her workplace mentioned in an announcement. “The investigations are ongoing, and offenders who perpetrated acts of fraud will be held accountable under the law.”
Henry’s assertion got here as a number of Pennsylvania district attorneys introduced that they have been investigating mass drop-offs of voter registration kinds.
Officers in Lancaster County initially introduced they have been reviewing roughly 2,500 voter registration kinds because of potential fraud. Ray D’Agostino, the vice chair of the county’s board of commissioners, mentioned at a Monday assembly that 57 p.c of these have been verified, 17 p.c have been recognized as fraudulent and the remaining 26 p.c are nonetheless being investigated.
“A good number of those are still suspected of being fraud, but it’s a very painstaking process, obviously, to go through this,” D’Agostino mentioned.
At a rally final week, Trump misstated the character of the investigation and falsely claimed fraudulent votes had been forged.
“They’ve already started cheating in Lancaster. They’ve cheated. We caught them with 2,600 votes. No, we caught them cold,” Trump mentioned.
In Monroe County, District Legal professional Michael Manusco (D) mentioned the board of elections referred practically 30 irregular paperwork to his workplace, most of which have been submitted by Discipline+Media Corps. Up to now, Manusco’s workplace mentioned 16 purposes submitted by the corporate have been decided to be fraudulent.
“The specific fraudulent character of these applications involve forged signatures, often with incorrect or incomplete identifying information,” Manusco’s workplace mentioned in an announcement.
The York County district lawyer’s workplace confirmed to The Hill the possibly fraudulent kinds it’s investigating have been additionally submitted by the corporate.
