Pennsylvania government officials sent out at least 240,000 ballots to applicants they could not verify either by their Social Security or Driver’s License numbers.
15 Republican State Representatives sent a letter to Acting Secretary of the Commonwealth Leigh Chapman after they discovered over 240,000 illicit ballots were mailed in the state prior to the 2022 midterm elections.
“Due to the 2018 directive from your office instructing counties to register voters without verification of identity, the need to verify the identity and eligibility of mail and absentee ballot applicants is even more critical to the integrity of our elections. As of October 21, 2022, records of 2022 Mail Ballot Data shows that counties have already mailed over 240,000 unverified ballots,” the letter states.
The letter notes two contradictory statements: one by Deputy Secretary for Elections and Commissions Jonathon Marks who testified in court that unverified ballots can still be mailed out to applicants, but wouldn’t be counted officially in the election until ID was produced.
The other by the State Department itself, who claimed that ballots cannot be sent out until ID is first provided.
“Either the ballots are mailed to unverified applicants, or ballots are not mailed to unverified applicants but both statements cannot be true,” the letter notes. “Due to this conflicting information, conscientious election workers could unknowingly accept and count ballots for which no verification has ever occurred.”
The letter goes on to claim their figure of 240,000 came from the Pennsylvania State Department’s own data, and that the mailed ballots must be set aside in accordance with Pennsylvania law.
“According to the DoS data, as of October 21, 2022, a staggering 240,000 ballots are ‘NOT VERIFIED.’ That is an enormous number of ballots, which, according to the law, must be set aside and not counted for the 2022 General Election unless the voter produces ID,” the letter says.
“This will force the counties to, as one election county official described it, ‘go after the missing information’ to obtain proof of ID for the unverified ballots.”
Election integrity investigative organization Verity Vote released a report Wednesday corroborating the findings from HAVV verification data and even finding a greater disparity of 249,000 unverified ballots as of Oct. 17.
HAVV verification is when a ballot is sent to the Social Security Administration to verify the accuracy of the name, date of birth, and last four digits of SSN submitted.
Pennsylvania has seen a much higher rate of HAVV transactions and non-matches than other states.
Coincidentally, Acting Secretary of State Chapman on Wednesday warned voters to expect delays in vote counting and certification in the midterm election.
“It’s really important for us to get accurate information about the election process in Pennsylvania,” Chapman said. “So voters and the public know that when there are delays in counting, it doesn’t mean that there’s anything nefarious happening. It’s just what the law is in Pennsylvania.”
Read the letter:
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