Alleged voter fraud scheme in PA traced to major Arizona ballot harvesting firm FieldCorps

An alleged voter fraud scheme in four Pennsylvania counties, Lancaster, Cambria, York and Monroe, has been traced back to Arizona-based consulting group FieldCorps, run by Mesa Vice Mayor Francisco Heredia. Monroe County District Attorney Mike Mancuso brought the issues to light, saying that "the Monroe County Board of Elections identified approximately 30 irregular forms." In Lancaster, 60% of those investigated thus far were deemed to be fraudulent out of those voter registration forms submitted on or close to the deadline.

Those voting forms "were segregated" and the matter was referred for investigation. "In at least one example," Mancuso said, "the named applicant is in fact deceased." FieldCorps runs voter registration drives and Heredia said the company trains all workers to fill out forms correctly. FieldCorps was operating out of Lancaster County and their canvassing drives go back to June. Heredia is a Kamala Harris supporter and is not affiliated with a political party.

Lancaster County DA Heather Adams spoke on the matter, saying that on Tuesday she was contacted by their chief clerk of elections regarding "potentially fraudulent voter registration applications" that had been received "at or near the deadline for registering to vote." It was while staff were preparing to process the application that it became clear that many applications "appeared to have the same handwriting, were filled out on the same day with unknown signatures, and some were previously registered voters and the signatures on file did not match the signatures on the application." Lancaster County detectives are currently investigating, and fraud has been found, including false addresses, false personal information, mismatched social security numbers, and other issues.

In cases where much of the information was accurate, detectives spoke to the applicants named in the voter registration forms and found that those applicants had not completed the form and the signatures on the form were not their own. "At this point," Adams said, "it is believed that the fraudulent voter registrations are connected to a large scale canvassing operation for voter registrations that date back to June." Most of the fraudulent applications were dated in August.

That canvassing effort, she said, was a paid effort wherein the canvassers were employed and paid to obtain voter registrations. "This election cycle, the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office has flagged FieldCorps, the parent company of Field+Media Corps, for submitting a high percentage of incomplete or inaccurate forms," Vote Beat reports. The deadline for voter registration in PA was Oct. 21.

Adams said the "canvasses took place at various shopping centers, parking lots of grocery stores and businesses, sidewalks, and parks." Some of the applications were legitimate, but 60% of those that have been reviewed of the 2,500 submitted have been fraudulent in Lancaster County. That box is still being sorted and investigated. She mentioned that two other counties have also been dealing with similar problems and are investigating. Adams said that criminal codes were violated in Lancaster County.

FieldCorps, whose website is now down, was the group that submitted the forms under investigation, per York County Chief Greg Monskie. Those forms were submitted on behalf of national nonprofit voter registration organization Everybody Votes, VoteBeat reports. "Our partners work diligently to ensure all forms collected comply with all rules and regulations," Everybody Votes said in a statement.

Heredia said his company had not been contacted about an investigation as yet. FieldCorps runs voter registration drives. During a drive in Navajo and Mohave Counties in Arizona, voter registration forms were flagged.

Reporter Salena Zito said that FieldCorps' clients also include the Biden-Harris campaign as well as Mark Kelly and Arizona Democrats.

The site OpenSecrets shows that FieldCorps received nearly $100,000 from Living United for Change in Arizona as well as smaller amounts from the campaigns of Greg Stanton, Ginger Sykes Torres, Tom O'Halleran, and the Working Families Party, among others.

Heredia has said that FieldCorps was contracted by Everbody Votes to do canvassing in Pennsylvania. He said that while his company reviews voter registration forms for accuracy before submitting them, they are required under state law to turn them in even if there are issues.

A job posting for a "political canvasser" with FieldCorps shows that the $20/hour temporary job requires no experience for hiring.