Pennsylvania Lawsuit Claims Thousands of Dead People Remain on Voter Rolls
A legal group filed a lawsuit in Pennsylvania alleging that the state has tens of thousands of dead people on its voter rolls and that there is evidence of voting activity among the deceased.
The Public Interest Legal Foundation, which is not associated with President Donald Trump’s campaign, filed the lawsuit on Thursday arguing that Pennsylvania has failed to maintain voter registration records in violation of federal and state law.
PILF alleged that in an October analysis it found at least 21,000 apparently deceased citizens on the state’s voter rolls.
“This case is about ensuring that those deceased registrants are not receiving ballots,” J. Christian Adams, PILF president and general counsel, said in a news release.
“This case isn’t complicated. For nearly a year, we’ve been offering specific data on deceased registrants to Pennsylvania officials for proper handling ahead of what was expected to be a tight outcome on Election Day.”
“When you push mail voting, your voter list maintenance mistakes made years ago will come back to haunt in the form of unnecessary recipients and nagging questions about unreturned or outstanding ballots,” he continued.
The lawsuit alleged that over 200 of the deceased individuals voted in 2016 and 2018, after federally listed dates of death.
The office of Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar declined to comment on the active litigation.
Pennsylvania law requires ballots issued by deceased individuals to be rejected, but says if a ballot from a deceased individual is counted, it cannot invalidate any election.
The Michigan Department of State issued a statement on Thursday denying allegations that deceased individuals had voted in Michigan. Clerical errors made it appear that dead people voted, according to the statement.
Fact check: Ballots of deceased voters are not counted. Get the facts at https://t.co/eEWWZqcFTe on other misinformation that is being spread about the 2020 general election. pic.twitter.com/wPihe08Wge
— Michigan Department of State (@MichSoS) November 5, 2020
“Ballots of voters who have died are rejected in Michigan, even if the voter cast an absentee ballot and then died before Election Day,” the Department of State said in the statement.
“On rare occasions, a ballot received for a living voter may be recorded in a way that makes it appear as if the voter is dead.”
Meanwhile, Trump’s campaign has filed lawsuits related to vote tallies in multiple states, and Trump himself has made claims of widespread fraud.
As of Friday afternoon, former Vice President Joe Biden leads Trump by 9,746 votes in Pennsylvania, according to The New York Times.
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