Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago press conference began with an acknowledgement of voter registration fraud allegations in Pennsylvania.
“There’s some bad spots in Pennsylvania where some serious things have been caught or are in the process of being caught,” he said to the crowd gathered at his infamous Palm Beach, Fla., private club, on Tuesday morning.
The comment comes amid a growing list of early election missteps, including batches of fraudulent voter registrations intercepted in Lancaster County; a bomb threat at the Republican Campaign Committee headquarters in Montgomery County; and election workers disbanding a line of voters returning ballots in-person in Delaware County.
Questions have also risen after more batches of voter registration forms were dropped off this week in York County, which sits just across the Susquehanna River from Lancaster County.
In a statement to multiple media outlets, including CBS 21, York County President Commissioner Julie Wheeler confirmed a “large delivery of thousands of election-related materials from a third-party organization” had been received. Completed registration forms and mail-in ballot applications were contained within.
“As with all submissions, our staff follows a process for ensuring all voter registrations and mail-in ballot requests are legal,” she said. “That process is currently underway. If suspected fraud is identified, we will alert the District Attorney’s Office, which will then conduct an investigation. We will have no further comment until our internal review has been completed.”
The investigation into 2,500 suspected fraudulent ballots in nearby Lancaster County remains ongoing.
The Department of State’s daily report shows 1.4 million mail-in ballots have been received so far, including 849,849 from registered Democrats; 468,067 from Republicans; and 155,909 from unaffiliated voters.
The total number of ballots requested will likely still rise as Tuesday is the deadline for voters to ask for one. Overall, more than 9 million residents are registered to vote in the state.
