Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday baselessly claimed that Pennsylvania is “cheating” at “large scale levels,” escalating his spread of election fraud conspiracies in this all-important swing state.
The Republican presidential nominee’s Truth Social post in the final week of the race dovetailed with a broader GOP effort to sow doubts about Pennsylvania’s election integrity.
The efforts are similar to what Trump and his allies claimed before the 2020 presidential election. Trump went on to lose Pennsylvania to President Joe Biden by 81,000 votes.
Now, with polls showing Trump and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris in a dead heat in the Keystone State, the GOP appears to be laying the groundwork to once again challenge the election results.
As in 2020, Trump’s playbook in Pennsylvania involves exaggerating and mischaracterizing any irregularities around the state’s election to bolster claims of widespread fraud.
“Pennsylvania is cheating, and getting caught, at large scale levels rarely seen before. REPORT CHEATING TO AUTHORITIES. Law Enforcement must act, NOW!” Trump wrote in the Truth Social post Wednesday morning.
Two days earlier, Trump falsely claimed that Lancaster County was “caught” with “Fake Ballots and Forms” — even though officials there did not allege that any of the potentially fraudulent materials were actually votes.
The county says it is investigating up to 2,500 voter registration applications that were submitted around the state’s registration deadline. There are nearly 366,000 registered voters in Lancaster County.
In that same post, Trump also claimed that another part of the state, York County, also “received THOUSANDS of potentially FRAUDULENT Voter Registration Forms and Mail-In Ballot Applications from a third party group.”
“Really bad ‘stuff.’ WHAT IS GOING ON IN PENNSYLVANIA??? Law Enforcement must do their job, immediately!!! WOW!!!” Trump wrote.
York County President Commissioner Julie Wheeler said, “It’s not unusual to get large stacks of voter registrations or large stacks of requests for mail-in ballots,” local news outlet Fox43 reported Monday.
“It’s just this was an overabundance of registrations from one particular organization,” Wheeler said….