ABC15 is learning about investigations into fraudulent voter registrations in Pennsylvania has ties to a company in Arizona.
ABC15 confirmed investigations are ongoing both here and in Pennsylvania over a Valley company accused of submitting irregular registration and mail in ballot request forms.
Lancaster County’s District Attorney has announced an investigation into “an organized effort to submit approximately 2,500 voter registration applications at or near the deadline for registering to vote.”
“There is no evidence of anything indicating any sort of widespread voter fraud or if at all,” Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt told CNN this weekend. “Lancaster did what any other county would do which is investigate and make sure that potentially fraudulent voter registration applications are not processed.”
The Monroe County District Attorney said, “The Monroe County Board of Elections identified approximately 30 irregular forms.” The District Attorney continued to say, “Request forms have been found to be fraudulent as they were not authorized by the persons named as applicants. In at least one example, the named applicant is in fact deceased.”
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The District Attorney identified Field+Media Corps as the “Arizona based organization, working out of Lancaster County, in turn was responsible for submitting the forms in question to county officials.”
York County, PA, confirmed to ABC15 they also have an investigation into voter registration forms.
Field+Media Corps’ website appears to be down and ABC15’s attempts to contact the company have been unsuccessful. A press release lists Mesa Vice Mayor Francisco Heredia as the company’s CEO. Attempts to reach Heredia were unsuccessful Friday.
The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office told ABC15 there is an investigation into Field+Media Corps locally. The Attorney General’s office confirmed to ABC15 that voter registration forms in Mohave and Navajo counties submitted by Field+Media Corps last year were sent to the AGs office to be investigated. But they were deferred to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office to investigate as the forms had initially been submitted to Maricopa County before being forwarded to Mohave and Navajo counties.
Monroe County, PA, says several of the registration forms have been traced to a single person.
"Voter registration for both parties is such an important part of the campaign,” said Arizonan Nathan Sproul. Controversy surrounded Sproul’s firms in both 2004 and 2012 as they registered hundreds of thousands of voters in a matter of weeks.
“It’s like building an airplane as its taking off from the aircraft carrier,” Sproul said of the rush to register.
His organizations were dogged by allegations of fraud. Sproul was never charged but says mistakes in registration are rarely nefarious, but more often a result of sloppiness or laziness by folks hired to register voters on the ground.
“The easiest thing for them to do in that situation is go out and make up fictitious names, fictitious addresses and submit them,” Sproul said. “But it sure does look like in Pennsylvania that the system seems to be working not just in one county, but in multiple counties. So I think that’s good for democracy and good for election day voting.”
The RNC sent ABC15 the following statement Friday afternoon:
“Pennsylvania authorities are investigating an alleged fraudulent voter registration scheme and named a radical leftist consulting group, Field+Media Corps, as the organization submitting fraudulent registration forms. These announced investigations raise serious questions: Who is funding these efforts? Is the group active in other states? Is there any connection to leftist dark money groups?
These are serious allegations that deserve an immediate and robust investigation to determine if laws were broken. If so, those responsible must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
The RNC Election Integrity team is closely monitoring these investigations. The most important election in the history of our country is four days away. These investigations must be done immediately so Pennsylvanians - and Americans across the country - can have faith in the process and confidence in the results.
Voters deserve transparency and accountability in our elections.”
