Two allegations of potential voter registration violations in Berks County have been turned over to local authorities for investigation.
At a meeting of the board of elections Thursday, First Assistant County Solicitor Cody Kauffman said the county recently received requests from two individuals seeking information about their voter registration status.
He explained that the requests were accompanied by notices the individuals received from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services informing them that the agency is reconsidering its approval of their naturalization applications. The notices referenced registration forms from previous years where the individuals checked off that they were not U.S. citizens, but then proceeded to sign a declaration stating that they were U.S. citizens for at least 30 days prior to an election.
Kauffman said the county has voter registrations on file for both voters, but neither voted in any elections.
He said one individual submitted a standard voter registration application in 2023 and the other appears to have submitted a registration in 2020 connected to an application for public benefits.
Kauffman acknowledged that the county election office should have flagged these voter registration forms for additional review, but said that doesn’t change that their signatures on the forms could represent cases of perjury under federal voter registration law.
He suggested the commissioners refer the matters to the office of District Attorney John Adams for further investigation.
The board voted unanimously to forward the cases to Adams’ office.
Commissioner Dante Santoni Jr. said he supports taking the action because the law establishes the rules, but the district attorney will determine if there was a potential language issue.
“It appears that they may not have been trying to do something illegal here because they never voted,” he said.
Kauffman confirmed that the district attorney will determine if there was any criminal intent.
Commissioner Michael Rivera said the cases present a learning opportunity for election office workers to be more attentive to the details when processing voter registration applications.
Elections Director Anne Norton told the board that she has reviewed the process with her team so that these cases are flagged in the future and is considering adding another layer of management review to registrations applications.