{"id":186373,"date":"2026-05-07T17:22:31","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T17:22:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/186373\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T17:22:31","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T17:22:31","slug":"system-error-not-fraud-likely-cause-of-duplicate-votes-berks-official-says-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/186373\/","title":{"rendered":"System error, not fraud, likely cause of duplicate votes, Berks official says"},"content":{"rendered":"

A potential case of voter fraud<\/a> appears to be a system error, not an intentional attempt to cast illegal ballots, according to Berks County elections officials.<\/p>\n

Last month, First Assistant County Solicitor Cody Kauffman informed the Berks County Board of Elections about an incident of a voter who appeared to have cast ballots in both Berks and Montgomery counties in the 2024 general election. The situation was brought to his attention by the Pennsylvania Department of State.<\/p>\n

Kauffman said the Department of State has referred the matter to the U.S. Attorney General\u2019s Office for further investigation.<\/p>\n

He added that an internal review was launched by the county\u2019s election office when the issue was brought to his attention.<\/p>\n

That review showed that the voter in question was recorded as having voted in both counties in 2024, as well as in other elections. In fact, he said, it appears the voter cast ballots in Berks and Montgomery eight times over the span of 13 years.<\/p>\n

The elections board voted unanimously to challenge the registration of the voter.<\/p>\n

During that challenge process, Kauffman said at an election board meeting Thursday, the county elections office received new information that appears to show no fraud was committed.<\/p>\n

He said two individuals with the same name separately contacted the office.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat appears to have happened here is there were, at one point, two voters in Montgomery County with the same name,\u201d Kauffman said. \u201cWhen one of those voters moved to Berks County and her voter registration transferred to Berks County, for whatever reason it appears the other voters\u2019 information was transferred over.\u201d<\/p>\n

The result, Kauffman said, was that the voter who moved to Berks had the other person\u2019s driver\u2019s license number and date of birth included in her voter registration.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess the good news is that this doesn\u2019t appear to be a case of voter fraud,\u201d he said. \u201cUnfortunately, it does appear to be an issue of compounding errors that occurred with this registration transfer which occurred back in the early 2000s.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kauffman said the election board cannot cancel the registration of the person with the incorrect information, but recommended the board send the Berks voter a letter requesting that she update her registration information.<\/p>\n

The board agreed, voting unanimously to send the letter to the voter.<\/p>\n

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