Voting probe launched in Westmoreland County over 2020 fraud claims pitched by GOP lawmakers

Lauren Elliott suspected the worst when she listened to a voice message left for her last week by a Westmoreland County detective.

When she was told the reason for the inquiry, her worry turned to anger.

Elliott was among the handful of voters contacted last week as part of an investigation into alleged double-voting claims during the 2020 election and pushed anew earlier this month by a handful of Republican state lawmakers.

“They’re just wasting my time over a bogus lie,” Elliott said.

A high school Spanish teacher, Elliott, 40, never lived or voted outside of Pennsylvania. She said she was dumbfounded when she was questioned by Westmoreland County Chief Detective Ron Zona over whether she voted four years ago in Ohio and in Westmoreland County.

A simple Google search would have answered that question, Elliott said. She easily found 20 women with her same name living in Ohio, including one with whom she shared the same birthday, she said.

Zona on Thursday confirmed an investigation is ongoing but declined to discuss specifics. Zona only said the district attorney’s office received a list of six names from state Rep. Eric Nelson and one from the Westmoreland County Election Bureau of potential double voters.

“We have to check these out. I asked (Elliott) if she ever voted in Ohio. She said no, and I told her I believed her,” Zona said.

Nelson, R-Hempfield, defended the probe, saying there are holes in the system Pennsylvania uses to confirm eligible voters did not also cast ballots in neighboring states such as Ohio, New York, West Virginia and Virginia.

He and a group of Republican state lawmakers during a news conference earlier this month in Harrisburg claimed double voting was a potential problem in Pennsylvania and called for an investigation.

“This issue of double voting came to me from constituents, primarily concerned about double voting among college students,” Nelson said. “This investigation is extremely important because prevention is part of election integrity. Many people don’t know it is a felony to vote in two places.”

State lawmakers found 85 suspected voters in Ohio who had the same name as people who voted in 13 Western Pennsylvania counties during the 2020 election where about 3 million total ballots were cast, Nelson said.

He conceded there is no proof any of those people cast more than one ballot, but those names were forwarded to county investigators and to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Nelson pointed to the guilty plea entered last month in federal court by a Philadelphia-area man who authorities said voted in Pennsylvania and Florida during the 2020 presidential election.

No similar cases have been prosecuted recently in Western Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania is one of 25 states that are part of the Electronic Registration Information Center, a nonprofit and nonpartisan agency that compiles and shares election data to ensure the accuracy of voting rolls. A handful of Republican-led states have withdrawn from the system in recent years over concerns related to election integrity issues.

Nelson suggested Pennsylvania, in addition to its inclusion in ERIC, should join with other states not part of that monitoring system to better ensure the accuracy of its voting rolls.

Westmoreland County Election Bureau Director Greg McCloskey said accuracy of the voting rolls are checked in house using data from the state.

“If someone was registered in another state, we’d be notified,” McCloskey said.

He said he that since 2022 the election bureau has referred three names, based on information sent from other states, to the district attorney’s office for investigation of suspected voter fraud. No criminal charges have been filed.

Philip Hensley-Robin, executive director of Common Cause Pennsylvania, a nonpartisan good-government advocacy group, said allegations of voter fraud in the 2020 election have been investigated with no major findings. He said continued inquiries raises unjustified concerns about the 2024 election, in which ballots now are being cast.

“These allegations of double voting is dangerous: It doesn’t take place,” Hensley-Robin said. “It suppresses eligible voters and spreads misinformation. Certainly, the timing here is undoubtedly related to the upcoming November election.”

Nelson said the probe is necessary to ensure elections are fair. He claimed the list of suspected double voters included Democrats, Republicans and those not affiliated with either major party.

“All of us want to ensure we have accurate elections,” Nelson said.

Still, Elliott, who was a registered Democrat in 2020 and is now not affiliated with either major political party but is supporting Vice President Kamala Harris this fall, said she feels like she was targeted. She called the investigation voter intimidation.

“How many people are they calling like this? The election is less than three weeks away,” she asked. “What’s the purpose of all of this?”