According to the election integrity group Verity Vote, nearly 250,000 ballots were mailed to Pennsylvania voters without having their names validated, according to state data. Fifteen members of the Pennsylvania state house of representatives wrote to acting secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Leigh Chapman on Tuesday using data from Verity Vote.
The parliamentarians noted that votes are “sent to unverified applicants,” citing Jonathan Marks’ evidence as the Deputy Secretary for Elections and Commissions. However, the legislators said, “less than two weeks following Marks’ testimony, the Department of State sent out advice advising the counties that the verification is done prior to the mailing of votes.”
The state lawmakers wrote, “Both claims cannot be true: either ballots are mailed to unverified applicants or ballots are not mailed to unverified applicants. Conscientious election workers may unintentionally accept and tally ballots for which there has never been any verification because of this contradicting information.
State Rep. Francis Ryan reportedly questioned Marks about “the numerous requests submitted to the Social Security Administration Help America Vote Verification (HAVV) system,” according to Just the News.
In response, the deputy secretary for Elections and Commissions stated that the HAVV systems were utilized to validate Social Security numbers on applications for mail-in ballots.
However, Marks continued, counties must still send the ballot to the voter without confirming their identification if they provide an incorrect Pennsylvania ID or if the last four digits of their Social Security number cannot be validated for a mail-in ballot application. The ballot, however, “doesn’t count until the voter provides a legitimate form of ID,” he continued.
To be clear, Marks said, “I want to emphasize the difference between the two processes: voter registration. Neither the federal government nor any state demand that the two numbers match or that each voter possess one of the two numbers.
“It is necessary for ballots that are sent in the mail. The county can still issue the ballot if the voter provides a valid form of identification, such as a PennDOT ID, the last four of their SSN that can be verified, or one of the other forms of identification allowed by law, even if when they apply their PennDOT ID or last four of SSN cannot be verified.”
Marks seems to be saying that if a mail-in ballot is sent without a legitimate form of identification, the vote shouldn’t be counted. But it might, as the Pennsylvania lawmakers note in their letter.
“County election officials have access to the findings of the SSN4 HAVV and PennDOT matching verifications, but they play no significant part in the matching process, the legislators write. The SSA may generate and mail a letter to some applicants informing them that the ID they gave did not match its data, according to county election officials. The county board of elections is instructed in the letter to request a valid form of identification from such voters. However, according to the county election officials, they can and do tally the votes without the voter’s ID if they don’t get evidence of identification. Furthermore, a number of counties claim that they are able to “repair” the invalid ID in the system and accept the ballot (without the voter taking any action).”
The election integrity group Verity Vote, which warned of the 250,000 unconfirmed ballots being miscounted by referencing data from the state itself, told Just the News it is being attacked for its report despite the possibility of a quarter of a million votes being miscounted.
Election officials “are trying to do the right thing and repair it for people for their ballot to be counted,” Verity Vote stated. While individuals may have “pure motives,” the law is meant to be administered fairly, and “it’s possible that ballots that shouldn’t be recognized, could be,” despite their good intentions.
The organization lamented that the Pennsylvania Department of State “doesn’t feel like they have to answer to these [legislative] members” and that it is “very aggravating that nobody’s doing anything about this.”
And according to Phill Kline, head of the Amistad Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to election integrity, the issues from the 2020 presidential election will recur in the 2022 midterm elections.
According to Kline, who spoke to Just the News, “the left has refused to comply by sensible procedures, laws, and standards that make it easy for legitimate voters to vote and impossible for fraudulent voters and individuals to conduct fraud.”
