Republicans’ concerns are mounting that votes are being manipulated in battleground states that could affect the outcome of a close presidential election.
In Pennsylvania, Republican state Sen. Jarrett Coleman and Republican state Rep. Lloyd Smucker have expressed concerns over mail-in ballots from overseas voters, while “inefficient” election systems in Bucks County have other GOP officials rumbling.
Here’s a deeper dive into early voting problems in swing states ranging from Michigan to Georgia.
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Michigan
The Michigan Department of State office has announced that problems with some Dominion voting machines could make it harder for some people to vote for candidates in different parties, also called split-ticket voting.
Michigan residents with disabilities and other voters using Dominion Voter Assist Terminals, or VATs, to help them cast their ballots initially receive “an error message” when they try to split their ballot between votes for Republican and Democratic candidates.
“If a voter using the Dominion VAT votes straight party but then splits their ticket, the voter will receive an error message. That voter will need to go back and de-select their straight-party selection and vote for candidates in the races individually or vote straight party without splitting their ticket,” Democratic Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s office said in a press release.
The department said “It is not possible to fix the programming for VATs this close to the election,” as it noted that the issue will “make the process more inconvenient for some voters using the VATs.”
Responding to the issue during a recent press conference, Benson claimed election officials had only discovered the matter as “early voting began.” Her comments that VATs were having the same kinds of issues “nationwide” sparked off a firestorm, particularly from conservatives, who questioned why the issue was “not caught during the testing period.”
NEW: Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson says there is a “NATIONWIDE ISSUE with Dominion Voter Access Terminals,” preventing voters from making certain selections.
Of course there is
According to her office, this “programming issue” CANNOT be fixed, and voters are… pic.twitter.com/O6HPChDMbK
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) October 30, 2024
Benson later walked back from her worries that voters “nationwide” were having trouble with VATs, though she reiterated that it affected Michigan residents.
“Dominion has explained that the VAT programming error only affects users in Michigan,” a spokesperson for the Michigan Secretary of State’s Office said.
Meanwhile, a former GOP nominee for attorney general in Michigan, Matthew DePerno, worried that 164,000 duplicate ballots had been recorded in the battleground state that former President Donald Trump lost by just over 154,000 votes in 2020.
“After reviewing the Qualified Voter File (QVF) of votes actually cast as of yesterday, Oct 29, 2024, the database identifies 114,545 Michigan voters who have cast 279,113 ballots from multiple addresses across the state. This results in 164,568 excess ballots as of 10/29/2024,” DePerno said in a post to X.
After reviewing the Qualified Voter File (QVF) of votes actually cast as of yesterday, Oct 29, 2024, the database identifies 114,545 Michigan voters who have cast 279,113 ballots from multiple addresses across the state. This results in 164,568 excess ballots as of 10/29/2024.… pic.twitter.com/AJjsB7yVkK
— Matthew S. DePerno, Esq. (@mdeperno) October 30, 2024
In a statement responding to DePerno’s concerns, Benson’s office said that the “error” had been resolved.
“Each of these voters only had one vote recorded for this election. This error in the data export process has been corrected and these erroneous extra lines no longer appear on the report,” the statement read.
Republican National Committee Co-chair Lara Trump called the duplicates “a glitch in the system” in a post to X.
“These duplicates were not and WILL NOT BE COUNTED,” Lara Trump, who is the former president’s daughter-in-law, said.
Pennsylvania
In Pennsylvania, a state Trump lost by under 82,000 votes four years ago, officials are investigating thousands of “irregular” last-minute voter registration applications in two counties that have been linked to Field and Media Corps. The company conducts voter registration and outreach programs and is spearheaded by Francisco Heredia, the Democrat Vice Mayor of Mesa, Arizona.
In Pennsylvania’s York County, 24% of 3,087 applications under scrutiny are “undergoing further review” while 29% had incomplete information, according to the York County district attorney.
Officials in Pennsylvania’s Monroe County confirmed that roughly 30 forms Heredia’s company was “responsible for submitting,” included “irregular” mail-in ballot applications.
“In at least one example, the named applicant is in fact deceased. To date several, of the fraudulent voter registration forms have been traced to a specific person,” the Monroe County District Attorney’s Office said in a Facebook post.
“A company calling itself ”Field and Media Corps” a subsidiary of Fieldcorps, an Arizona-based organization, working out of Lancaster County, in turn, was responsible for submitting the forms in question to county officials,” the statement continued.
While not confirmed to be tied to Heredia’s company, Pennsylvania’s Lancaster County’s Elections Board has also confirmed that a significant number of voter registration ballots turned into the county are illegitimate. Of 2,500 voter registration applications under investigation, 17% have been deemed fraudulent. Another 26% are under investigation.
“I will say a lot of the ones in the category, the 26%, a good number of those are still suspected of being fraud but it’s a very painstaking process to go through those,” Lancaster County Commissioner Ray D’Agostino said during a press update Monday.
In response to the findings, the conservative Pennsylvania Freedom Caucus has called on Republican Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt to revoke a 2018 Department of State directive that prohibits “county election boards from denying applications or preserving pending status when an applicant’s identity cannot be verified.”
As reports of suspected fraud mount, it’s up to the DOS to act in order to secure elections. https://t.co/GVASjchyat pic.twitter.com/Twk80eoEKh
— Pennsylvania Freedom Caucus (@PAFreedomCaucus) October 29, 2024
Noting that “troubling reports of fraudulent voter registration applications” have arisen, Republican state Rep. David Zimmerman said, “The Department’s directive creates dangerous loopholes that are being exploited to undermine our elections.”
“We urge Secretary Schmidt to rescind this directive immediately, enabling county election boards to deny unverifiable applications when they are received,” he continued.
Georgia
The Georgia Republican party, along with Trump’s campaign, is leading a lawsuit arguing that seven Democratic-leaning Peach State counties were “illegally accept[ing] ballots this weekend AFTER the end of early voting on Friday,” per a Fox Business report.
The Republicans are worried that Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Gwinnett, Fulton, Chatham, and Athens-Clarke counties lacked transparency and a commitment to election integrity amid a “coordinated effort” to collect ballots past the early voting deadline.
“Why didn’t these six counties inform the state board of elections, their county board of elections, the Secretary of State, or their local governments about their plans to essentially extend early voting?” Georgia GOP Chairman Josh McKoon asked in a letter. “Who gave the order to Fulton and Chatham County officials to bar poll observers from monitoring the process? Why did they do this?”
A Georgia judge had previously ruled against GOP arguments that absentee ballots in Fulton County, which is home to Atlanta and 11% of the state’s voters, should not be accepted after the early voting period ended.
“I find that it is not a violation of those two code sections for a voter to hand-return their absentee ballots,” Fulton County Superior Court Judge Kevin Farmer said on Nov. 2.
More concerns arose when, in mid-October, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) expressed worries that Dominion Voting Systems machines were switching early votes. The Georgia lawmaker pointed to one case in her home district of Whitfield County where a “ballot had been changed from their selections made on the machine.”
“After several attempts of trying to change it to reflect their correct choices, they had to void the ballot and use a different machine,” she said in a post to X.
We vote on Dominion voting machines then it prints a paper ballot with our selections made on the machines.
This voter’s printed ballot had been changed from their selections made on the machine.
Good thing they… pic.twitter.com/S3AhmkTCxc
— Marjorie Taylor Greene
(@mtgreenee) October 18, 2024
The Whitfield County Board of Elections and Registrar’s Office responded to the incident by saying it had “quickly resolved” the issue after becoming aware of a situation where “a printed ballot didn’t reflect the voter’s selection.”
“This issue was quickly resolved while the voter was still on site. We assure everyone that we’re here to support you in your right to vote, so please always double check your printed ballot before putting it in the scanner,” the Whitfield Elections office reassured in a Facebook post on Oct. 18.
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A top official from the office of Georgia secretary of state blamed the error on the voter, calling it a “human” mistake.
“There is a reason we tell people to review their ballots. Humans make mistakes. They’re called mistakes for a reason. Anyone claiming machines are flipping votes are lying or don’t research. This issue is human/user error, always will be. Whitfield Co. handled it & voter voted,” Gabriel Sterling said in a post to X.
