At least 21,000 dead people registered on Pennsylvania’s voter rolls

Nov 8, 2020 | Politics

The lawsuit says that 92% of the deceased registrants have been dead for over a year.

There are at least 21,000 dead people registered on the state of Pennsylvania’s voter rolls, according to a lawsuit filed by a legal group.

A lawsuit filed on Thursday by the Public Interest Legal Foundation claims that there are tens of thousands of deceased registrants on voter rolls in Pennsylvania. The amended lawsuit filed against the Pennsylvania Department of State alleges that Pennsylvania failed to “reasonably maintain voter registration records under federal and state law” during the 2020 presidential election cycle.

The lawsuit alleges that a vast majority are from over a year ago. According to the lawsuit, 92% of the 21,000 deceased people on Pennsylvania’s voter rolls died earlier than October 2019. Thousands of the alleged registered dead people reportedly died over five years ago.

“As of October 7, 2020, at least 9,212 registrants have been dead for at least five years, at least 1,990 registrants have been dead for at least ten years, and at least 197 registrants have been dead for at least twenty years … Pennsylvania still left the names of more than 21,000 dead individuals on the voter rolls less than a month before one of the most consequential general elections for federal officeholders in many years,” the filing states.

The legal group claims that in 2016 and 2018, there were 216 instances of dead people voting.

“This case is about ensuring that those deceased registrants are not receiving ballots,” PILF President and General Counsel J. Christian Adams said in a statement. “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,” Adams warned.

The lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.

The Public Interest Legal Foundation is an Indiana-based 501(c)(3) public interest law firm founded in 2012 that claims it is “dedicated entirely to election integrity.”

“The Foundation exists to assist states and others to aid the cause of election integrity and fight against lawlessness in American elections,” the PILF website states. PILF has previously filed cases in Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Virginia.

On Thursday, the Trump campaign filed a federal lawsuit in Nevada in an attempt to stop the counting of “illegal votes.” The suit alleges that thousands of nonresidents and dead people have cast ballots in the state.

In Michigan, there were reports of extremely elderly voters, who would be so old that they would likely be deceased, mailing in absentee ballots. A viral social media post allegedly showed several people who were over 118 years old casting their ballots in the 2020 election. Michigan’s secretary of state’s office said the error is a glitch in the system.

Article by Paaul Sacca