Voter fraud suspected in registration deluge

The Mercury

READING -- A backlog of last-minute voter registrations in Berks County is pushing the system to its breaking point, according to election officials.

Director of Elections V. Kurt Bellman told the Board of Elections Thursday that there have been flagrant attempts at voter registration fraud.

Advertisement


"It’s absolutely out of hand," Bellman said. "Not only do we have unintentional duplication of voter registrations but we have blatant duplicate voter registrations."

Bellman said groups conducting voter drives are coming out of the woodwork, something Berks County hasn’t seen before. He added that some of the drives are being conducted in violation of the law because they are paying incentives to sign up voters.

Commissioner Mark Scott suggested the Board of Elections conduct its own investigation that would be public rather than create more work for the district attorney’s office.

"I’d like the public to get more access to the details of fraud," Scott said.

---