Trump's claim that 2,600 'votes' were 'caught' in Lancaster, Pa., distorts registration probe

Former President Donald Trump said Republicans on his side caught rampant voter cheating in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

"They have already started cheating in Lancaster," Trump said at an Oct. 29 rally in Allentown, Pennsylvania. "They have cheated. We caught them with 2,600 votes. We caught them cold, 2,600 votes. ... And every vote was written by the same person." 

Trump then said sarcastically, "I wonder how that happened? It must be a coincidence."

Earlier in the day, Trump made similar comments on X, writing that Lancaster County was "caught with 2600 Fake Ballots and Forms, all written by the same person." 

Trump’s statements about ballots are wrong. Lancaster officials said that they were investigating suspect voter registration applications — which are not the same as ballots. 

We asked the Trump campaign to provide evidence of 2,600 fraudulent ballots cast in Lancaster and got no response.

Trump may have been drawing from Lancaster County election officials’ initial Oct. 25 media statement announcing a press conference that day.

"The Board of Elections and District Attorney will provide an update on how these ballots have been identified, isolated, and investigated," it stated.

But Lancaster County spokesperson Michael Fitzpatrick said that the statement was corrected on the county’s website and social media feeds within minutes to say "applications" rather than "ballots." He said it was a typo.

"It is just applications," Fitzpatrick told PolitiFact.

By the time Trump spoke days later, it was clear from official statements and media reports that the Lancaster investigation was about registration applications — not ballots.

As a battleground state in what polls show is a very close presidential election between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, Pennsylvania is under intense scrutiny. It has 19 electoral votes, the most of any battleground state, and its election processes have been a source of several false claims.

Lancaster County prosecutors and election officials said in an Oct. 25 statement after the press conference that they were reviewing 2,500 voter registration forms for "suspected voter registration fraud" that were dropped off at or near the voter registration deadline.

Staff members noticed that numerous applications appeared to have the same handwriting and were filled out on the same day. Some of the applications were from previously registered voters and their signatures did not match the ones on file, county officials said. 

Some applications contained correct personal identification information such as voters’ addresses, but the people listed on the applications informed detectives that they did not request or fill out the forms. 

Lancaster County District Attorney Heather Adams said investigators found problems with 60% of registrations they had reviewed, but she did not say how many had been investigated. However, Adams said that some registration applications were legitimate and that a preliminary investigation signaled that these registration applications came from paid canvassers. She didn’t name them.

Most of the officials’ statements at the press conference made it clear that their investigation was about applications to register — not votes cast. 

However, Lancaster County Commissioner Josh Parsons, chairman of the board, said, "We isolated and contained all suspected fraudulent ballots," again echoing that word "ballots." 

Commissioner Ray D’Agostino said at the news conference that the applications were not for one party alone.

People complete voter registration application forms when they register to vote; a ballot is a record of people’s votes. Election officials said that the suspect voter registration applications have been set aside as officials investigated them.

We confirmed with Fitzpatrick, Lancaster County’s spokesperson, that if officials suspect that a voter registration application is fraudulent, that person who applied is not registered to vote and not sent a ballot.

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A similar investigation is underway in York County, Pennsylvania.

Kyle Miller, a state policy advocate in Pennsylvania for Protect Democracy, an advocacy group for fair elections, said the system worked as intended in Lancaster and York. 

"The county election officials properly reviewed and investigated any suspected fraudulent registrations proving that our system of checks is working to keep the PA election secure," Miller wrote in an email.

But election law experts also said paid canvassers sometimes submit fraudulent voter registrations. The most famous case of that was with ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now — multiple workers were convicted of voter registration fraud across several states and the group dissolved in 2010. Some states have set laws to regulate voter registration drives by outside groups. 

"There have been fraudulent registrations submitted in the past, often by paid circulators who are trying to produce forms so that they get paid," UCLA election law professor Richard Hasen said in an email. "I’m not aware of a single case where a fraudulently submitted registration form led to a fraudulently cast ballot in elections. ‘Mickey Mouse’ may try to register, but he doesn’t show up to vote on election day."

The Center for an Informed Public at the University of Washington found that both liberal and conservative social media accounts have used the investigations to spread rumors. 

Investigators had yet to identify any suspect or describe any partisan motivation.

Trump said that in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, "We caught them with 2,600 votes. We caught them cold, 2,600 votes. ... And every vote was written by the same person."

Lancaster County election officials are investigating 2,500 voter registration forms for "suspected voter registration fraud."

In an early communication from the county’s elections office, a press release mistakenly described the problem as being with "ballots." But officials said soon after that the word "ballots" was a typo and subsequent statements said "applications" instead.

Officials said that the registration applications they are reviewing had been set aside, which means the people they represent weren’t registered. 

By the time Trump spoke days later, it was clear from official statements and media reports that the Lancaster investigation was about registration applications, not ballots. Trump has provided no evidence of 2,600 fraudulent or fake ballots being cast in Lancaster.

We rate this claim False. 

RELATED: All of our fact-checks about Pennsylvania