 READING, PA -- 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. "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.
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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. Bellman said his office has had numerous calls from people who were registered through a group called the Association Communication Organization for Reform Now (ACORN), complaining that those taking down the voter information deliberately put inaccurate information on the form. Bellman said he also received a batch of registrations from Citizens for Consumer Justice in Allentown that contained several hundred forms, including ones that have been held since July and ones with fictitious names and addresses and even wrong counties. Bellman said he believes it's an attempt to overload the elections office. "It's election sabotage," Scott added.
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Volunteers are working in the Board of Elections office throughout the day, in the evenings and even on weekends. County officials are asking volunteers to commit to a schedule for volunteering since county workers have to train each volunteer. |