A group of local activists in southeastern Pennsylvania is presently challenging 865 mail-in ballot applications in Pennsylvania’s suburban southeastern counties, citing evidence that many applicants moved.

The disputers, who asked for anonymity to avoid potential harassment, obtained voter data from the commonwealth’s Statewide Uniform Registry of Electors (SURE) and identified voters who filed a permanent national change of address form. They then checked those names against mail-in ballot requests for the November general election. 

Broad + Liberty reviewed the list of disputed applicants containing 514 Democrats, 221 Republicans, and 130 others. The activists are not challenging anyone who filed a permanent change of address form after the April primary. (Someone who has moved can still vote in their old precinct in the very next election after moving, but not after that.) 

While most of the people on the list incurred a ballot-request challenge from the activists based on change of address — in many cases out of state — about 7.5 percent of those listed were indicated as unregistered anywhere in Pennsylvania. The reason in each case is not known; the activists cited registration cancellation or death as possible explanations. 

Filing the more than 800 challenges is proving to be a tedious affair because of a minor quirk in state law that requires a $10 deposit — payable in cash only — in order to log the complaint.

The challengers wrote individual letters opposing each applicants’ request and attached $10 to each missive. The letters noted Section 704 of the Pennsylvania Election Code forbids anyone who intends to remain outside the state permanently or indefinitely from voting in-state. 

“Based on the following information, I believe that the applicant below is not eligible to vote and therefore I challenge her/his ballot application,” the messages read, going on to describe the apparent circumstances in each case. 

At this writing, the activists delivered 212 letters and deposits to Chester County Voter Services on Tuesday and expected to get 191 challenges to Bucks County’s elections office on Friday. On Wednesday afternoon, Delaware County staffers rejected the 143 letters brought to that county’s government center, insisting that the disputers submit different paperwork. Objectors anticipate doing so in the next few days. 

In an email to Broad + Liberty, Delaware County elections director James P. Allen wrote his office would “get to any valid objections, if and when they are filed, in the appropriate course.”

Montgomery County’s elections office will also receive 319 challenges after the disputers navigate the county’s submission process which involves filling out a different form and sending certified checks or money orders rather than cash. 

Other discoveries

The same activists said they undertook another project earlier this year, obtaining SURE data and consulting the National Change of Address program, ultimately discovering thousands of voters who indicated moving out of Pennsylvania. The activists then determined which voters were registered in their new states and they mailed letters to the voters with a registration cancellation form and a return envelope. After checking registration records, the activists said they found that 3,132 people in Chester County — 25.4 percent of that locale’s voters in question — nullified their registrations. 

Cancellation numbers in the other counties were also apparently massive: 3,050 in Montgomery County, 2,631 in Delaware County, and 1,989 in Bucks County. All of these amounts surpassed 20 percent of the letters the senders said they mailed. 

The ballot challengers also said their number crunching yielded another jarring finding: 383 voters in the Philadelphia suburbs who had registered in two Pennsylvania locations. This list didn’t merely contain voters with matching names or birthdates but matching voter-identification numbers assigned by the commonwealth. 

Pennsylvania’s voter registry became infamous for copious errors in December 2019 when then Auditor General Eugene DePasquale (D) issued a report on the system. According to his audit, SURE contained 13,913 possibly duplicate voter records and 2,991 apparently dead voters, among other problems. 

Hans A. von Spakovsky, a senior legal fellow at the D.C.-based Heritage Foundation, said Pennsylvania “does a poor job of administering its elections in many respects.” His think tank’s “Election Integrity Scorecard” scores Pennsylvania 62 out of 100 on voting administration and awards the state only 18 points out of 28 specifically for its registration-list maintenance. 

He added he’s troubled by the incidence of residual in-state registration among those who move.

“This is a concerning problem and is another sign of how poorly the state is managing its voter registration list,” he reflected via email. “Given the high mobility of the American people, which averages anywhere from 10 to 20% each year, this failure by the state could lead to large numbers of voters remaining registered even though they no longer reside in Pennsylvania. How many would take advantage of that to vote we don’t know.”

The Pennsylvania Department of State as well as election officials in Chester, Montgomery, and Bucks counties did not comment after receiving inquiries. 

Bradley Vasoli is a writer and media strategist in Pennsylvania. You can follow him on X at @BVasoli.