A group of conservative activists says it\u2019s found a way to get a behind-the-scenes look at Pennsylvania elections in order to root out potential voter fraud: by reviewing lists of people disqualified from jury duty and comparing the names with those on the county\u2019s voter rolls.<\/p>\n
Only U.S. citizens are eligible to serve as jurors in U.S. courts; People who are not U.S. citizens are disqualified from jury duty \u2014 one of several reasons a potential juror may be disqualified. Other reasons include being under age 18, living outside the county where they\u2019ve been summoned for jury duty, or being unable to read, write or understand English.<\/p>\n
The get-out-the-vote group Early Vote Action, which has backed \u201celection-integrity\u201d causes championed by President Donald Trump and his allies, has begun reaching out to county court officials in Pennsylvania with requests to access their disqualified juror records.<\/p>\n
The group says it believes it can identify noncitizens who aren\u2019t eligible to vote by comparing the two lists in each county \u2014 and potentially matching the names of disqualified jurors who aren\u2019t citizens with names on current voter rolls.<\/p>\n
Led by activist Scott Presler of Beaver County, the group says its team will soon head to courthouses in Allegheny<\/a> and Butler<\/a> counties to view their so-called \u201cnon-juror\u201d lists because administrators haven\u2019t shared digital versions of the files in response to its request. Late last week Presler was in Philadelphia reviewing the lists in person<\/a>. But other counties, such as Chester, have shared the disqualified juror records via email, Presler recently said on social media.<\/p>\n In a post viewed nearly 2 million times since last week \u2014 and shared by at least three U.S. senators, including<\/a> Pennsylvania\u2019s Dave McCormick \u2014 Presler scrolled through Chester County\u2019s non-juror list containing what he said were \u201c65 pages of non-citizens\u201d summoned and later disqualified for jury duty.<\/p>\n \u201cIf this is happening in Chester County, it\u2019s happening everywhere,\u201d Presler wrote in his post. The Chester County non-juror list, referenced in Presler\u2019s social media post, contains data from years 2021 to June 2026. County officials also shared that data with WESA.<\/p>\n In his post, Presler also called on the U.S. Senate to pass the SAVE America Act<\/a> \u2014 the strict proof-of-citizenship voting measure championed by President Donald Trump \u2014 and he said senators such as McCormick should oppose leaving for a scheduled August recess if the chamber fails to call it up for consideration. In recent days, McCormick has appeared to be<\/a> ready to remain in Washington, D.C. to do so.<\/p>\n \u201cScott Presler has exposed more evidence that non-citizens are receiving rights reserved for American citizens. Meantime, the left continues to say there\u2019s nothing to see here,\u201d McCormick wrote<\/a>.<\/p>\n As of late July, Presler said his team had received disqualified-juror records from more than a dozen counties<\/a>, including Westmoreland and Indiana, and that it plans to request lists from each of the state\u2019s 67 counties.<\/p>\n But according to the state department that oversees Pennsylvania elections, a side-by-side view of these two directories doesn\u2019t provide a full picture: Non-jury lists contain only names and reasons for disqualification \u2014 not addresses, dates of birth or other information confirming the identifications of the people listed \u2014 which makes the records unfit for comparison to a voter roll, they said.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is not enough information used [in non-juror lists] to accurately match each individual with the voter file,\u201d said Geoff Morrow, a spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Department of State. \u201cAll evidence has shown that noncitizen voting is extremely rare across the country, including in Pennsylvania,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Last week, state officials said one person, who had identified as a noncitizen on their voter application, had recently voted in Lancaster County<\/a>. Law enforcement is reportedly investigating the matter. And the state\u2019s motor-voter registration<\/a> system has also come under scrutiny, as a recent state audit showed one such error made it through the registration system in 2024.<\/p>\n Presler did not respond to a request for comment last week. Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt \u2014 as recently as July 29, in a letter to federal officials<\/a> \u2014 has repeatedly said he is confident that Pennsylvania elections are \u201cfree, fair, safe and secure\u201d and that \u201conly eligible voters\u201d cast ballots in the state.<\/p>\n Allegheny, Butler records sought<\/p>\n The requests for counties to share their ineligible-jurors records comes shortly after the Trump administration wrote to Pennsylvania\u2019s top election official earlier in July, saying it had identified more than 14,000 possible noncitizens<\/a> registered to vote in the state. The administration did not explain its methodology in assembling that list of people.<\/p>\n The juror-list effort also coincides with New Jersey identifying some 400 ineligible voters<\/a> who had cast a ballot \u2014 a result of a software glitch, the state said.<\/p>\n As first reported<\/a> by VoteBeat, Schmidt \u2014 himself a Republican \u2014 responded to federal officials last week, urging them to share their method used to flag alleged ineligible voters.<\/p>\n \u201cPast analyses of voter lists have relied on faulty methodologies that can lead to inaccurate results and false claims about the citizenship status of eligible voters,\u201d Schmidt wrote July 29 to U.S. Department of Homeland Security secretary Markwayne Mullin.<\/p>\n Allegheny County spokesperson Beth Turnbull confirmed last week that the Common Pleas Court administrator received a request for in-person review of its disqualified-juror records, but she declined to name the requestor, saying only that \u201cthe meeting has not been scheduled yet.\u201d Allegheny County also declined to share details about its records via email.<\/p>\n