Former President Donald Trump is repeatedly raising doubts about election integrity in Pennsylvania, making baseless claims about widespread cheating in the biggest swing state of them all, even as election officials say voting is secure.
For the second day in a row, Trump posted about Pennsylvania on his social media platforms, saying on Truth Social, "We caught them CHEATING BIG in Pennsylvania. Must announce and PROSECUTE, NOW!"
Earlier in the week at a rally in Allentown, Trump zeroed in on Lancaster County, west of Philadelphia.
"They've already started cheating in Lancaster," Trump told the crowd. "They've cheated. We caught it with 2,600 votes. Now we caught them cold."
There is no evidence of 2,600 fraudulent votes being cast in Lancaster County.
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Officials in the county have said they are investigating a batch of 2,500 suspicious voter registration applications that may have been collected by a third party paid to sign up new voters. Some of the forms were in the names of voters who said they never filled them out.
"Several hundred, according to the district attorney's office as late as yesterday, have been determined to be fraudulent," said Ray D'Agostino, Lancaster County commissioner and elections board chair, in an interview Thursday with CNN. "At this point, the investigation is ongoing."
Authorities in Lancaster have been working to verify the authenticity of each filled-out form and say the election remains secure.
Trump also posted online that in addition to Lancaster County, there is "really bad 'stuff'" happening in neighboring York County, apparently referencing a similar review underway of voting applications.
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York County has been analyzing a large drop-off of 3,000 registration forms. So far, half of the registrations have been verified as valid. Officials have not yet said whether any of the documents have been fraudulent.
Pennsylvania Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt, a Republican, has said the verification systems have been working to ensure voting remains secure.
"There is no evidence of anything indicating any sort of widespread voter fraud," Schmidt told CNN.
Trump's statements about alleged voting fraud, not supported by evidence, are similar to baseless claims he made in 2020 that the Pennsylvania election was stolen in favor of President Joe Biden, who won the state's electoral votes. Trump, his allies and numerous third-party investigations all failed to offer any evidence of widespread fraud.
