Donald Trump makes false claims about ballots in Lancaster County in Truth Social post

Lancaster County was not “caught with 2600 Fake Ballots and Forms, all written by the same person,” as former President Donald Trump claimed on Truth Social Monday night.

Trump, who has a long history of spreading false information about Pennsylvania elections, took aim at Lancaster and York Counties, both of which have reported encountering voter registration applications that showed signs of fraud.

But Trump’s post drastically overcounted the affected documents, and went beyond reality to falsely claim that Lancaster County had encountered “Fake Ballots.”

Last week, Lancaster County officials announced they were reviewing two batches of voter registration applications, totaling 2,500 registrations, that had been turned in right before the registration deadline.

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The county prosecutor said applications in those batches had shown possible signs of fraud, including duplicate handwriting as well as fake names and addresses, but did not say how many applications were suspected to be fraudulent. Instead, officials said that all the ballots in the batches were being reviewed.

The batches had been turned in by a voter engagement group that paid workers to gather applications, but officials did not name the group. It is not uncommon, especially in presidential election years, for paid workers of such groups to turn in fabricated applications.

However, these applications are not ballots, and there is no evidence that fabricated voter registration forms have led to widespread voter fraud. Generally, experts say, fraudulent registration forms are intercepted by officials or result in someone being added to the voter rolls and then removed due to inactivity.

“It’s a serious problem and it undermines the integrity of the voter registration rolls. It puts more pressure on election officials to detect this fraud,” said Michael Morley, an election-law expert at Florida State University. “But even if it gets through, that’s sort of the end of the line. It’s not part of a bigger-picture plot to steal the election.”

The county’s investigation seems to show the system working to prevent fraud. And, despite the plea in Trump’s post for law enforcement to get involved, authorities are already investigating.

Trump doubled down on the false claims Tuesday at a news conference in Drexel Hill.

“There are some bad spots in Pennsylvania, where some serious things have been caught or are in the process of being caught,” he said.

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Trump’s Truth Social post also mentioned thousands of potentially fraudulent registration forms and mail-ballot applications in York County.

York County Commissioner Julie Wheeler told the York County Dispatch last week that the county had received thousands of forms, including registration and ballot applications, and was reviewing the materials carefully to ensure there was not evidence of fraud.

If suspected fraud is identified, Wheeler said, law enforcement will be contacted.

The false claims come as misinformation about the 2024 election intensifies, often driven by Trump and his allies. Election officials have warned that such claims sow mistrust in the system and could lead to political violence.

Staff writer Rob Tornoe contributed to this article.