Mail ballot problem in Pennsylvania county was a printing error, not fraud

As the results of the Pennsylvania Republican Senate primary remained up in the air a day after the election, critics of voting by mail distorted a problem with mail ballots in Lancaster County.

On election night May 17, partially counted returns were too close to determine if Mehmet Oz or Dave McCormick would emerge as the winner. The race may land within the half-percent margin to require a recount. 

A problem in Lancaster emerged after 7 a.m. on Election Day when officials opened up mail ballots and found that a significant number printed by the vendor, NPC, would not scan because they had the wrong identification code. The Pennsylvania State Department said about 22,000 ballots were affected; the county will duplicate ballots by hand and scan them over the next few days. 

On Twitter, some people suggested that it was a sign of voter fraud or something "suspicious." 

"And of course there are mail in ballot discrepancies in Lancaster County, PA," tweeted John Cardillo. "We’re a third world country. Voter fraud is becoming the accepted norm."

Another person tweeted of the Lancaster ballots: "I see a major opportunity for voter fraud."

But county and commonwealth officials told us there was no evidence of fraud.

The day after the election, County Commissioner John Trescot told PolitiFact that there was "no sign of fraud related to this printing error."

Lancaster County Detective Andrew Morgan, who works for the district attorney, told us that detectives had received no reports of fraud.

Lancaster officials said the error occurred after the county had approved the vendor’s test ballots, which had the correct identification code. The vendor, NPC, did not respond to PolitiFact. 

Ellen Lyon, a Pennsylvania State Department spokesperson, also said there is no indication the printing error resulted from  fraud or malicious intent. 

Human error in elections happens from time to time, said David Becker, founder of the Center for Election Innovation and Research. But it’s worth noting that the problem was discovered as a result of checks and balances built into the system. 

"It appears that every single voter who cast a vote on a ballot with the printing error on it will have their votes counted correctly, thanks to procedures in place," Becker said. 

Thirty-eight states allow officials to process ballots cast by mail before Election Day, but Pennsylvania isn’t among them. Pennsylvania law says mail ballots can’t be processed until 7 a.m. on Election Day. 

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More than 2 million people registered to vote so far this year without photo ID in Arizona, Pennsylvania and Texas.

So there was no way to spot the problem earlier.

Election officials from both parties have urged the Pennsylvania General Assembly to allow for earlier processing of mail ballots. 

"If the legislature had acted, this would have been discovered days if not weeks before, and could have been mitigated more effectively, allowing for rapid delivery of accurate results," Becker said.

In 2021, lawmakers passed a bill that included earlier processing of mail ballots, but Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, vetoed it, citing other aspects of the bill, including stricter voter ID requirements.

Voting by mail surged in Pennsylvania starting in 2020 as a result of Act 77, the 2019 law that established no-excuse mail voting, a provision pushed by Democrats. Republicans got one of their priorities included, too: elimination of straight-ticket voting. Following Joe Biden’s presidential win in Pennsylvania, some Republicans have sought to undo the law, and the matter is in litigation.

Former President Donald Trump, on his social media platform, Truth Social, used the Pennsylvania situation as another opportunity to attack voting by mail: "Our Country should go to paper ballots, with same day voting. Just done in France, zero problems. Get Smart America!!!"

Trump’s repeated statements suggesting widespread fraud have been debunked by fact-checkers, judges and government officials. France completed its presidential election count quickly because that was the only contest on the ballot.

Of all the counties in Pennsylvania, Lancaster and one other reported election issues, the State Department said. In Berks County, at least two dozen polling places had long lines as a result of problems with new electronic pollbooks. A court order extended voting in Berks County by one extra hour.

The winner of the Senate Republican primary will face Democratic nominee Lt. Gov. John Fetterman. The Senate seat is being vacated by Sen. Patrick Toomey, a Republican.

Social media posts extrapolated a problem with mail ballots in Lancaster County as a sign of "voter fraud."

There is no evidence of fraud. The issue had to do with a vendor that printed the mail ballots using a wrong identification code; the ballots would not scan, so they will need to be copied by hand. County officials dismissed notions of vote tampering or other illegal activity.

What happened in Lancaster is a vendor error, and suggestions that it amounts to voter fraud are wrong.

We rate this claim False. 

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