Pennsylvania Auditor General Tim DeFoor in September announced an audit of the state's Motor Voter program, which creates a voter registration pathway for all citizens who get or renew identification through the Department of Transportation.
Seven-and-a-half months later, the audit is ongoing with no timeline for completion, according to the Auditor General's Office.
"I cannot provide an update on an audit in process to maintain the objectivity of the audit team," said April Hutcheson, the office's director of communications.
The audit's announcement was praised at the time by the Pennsylvania Freedom Caucus, a group of conservative lawmakers on the right flank of the party, made up of fiscal hawks who aim to cut government spending and socially conservative lawmakers who oppose, for example, anti-discrimination ordinances protecting LGBTQ+ people.
"On August 12, 2024, the Pennsylvania Freedom Caucus requested an audit to assess whether the Department of State is maintaining an accurate voter registration database, particularly concerning records from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT)," the caucus wrote in a press release back in September.
DeFoor's office did not answer questions about whether the audit was motivated by the Freedom Caucus' request.
In the same press release, the caucus raised concerns that non-citizens were being inadvertently registered to vote.
That had previously been an issue with the Motor Voter program, but in 2017 Al Schmidt, then a Republican commissioner in Philadelphia, testified before the Legislature about the program. PennDOT fixed the issue by preventing the system from erroneously asking non-citizens if they wanted to register to vote. Schmidt is now the Secretary of State, appointed by Gov. Josh Shapiro, and has oversight responsibilities over statewide elections.
Despite the Freedom Caucus' statement, there has been no evidence presented of non-citizens being registered or voting as a result of the Motor Voter program since the 2017 fix, or as a result of the automatic voter registration program, which was started in 2023 under Shapiro. Under Motor Voter, PennDOT customers had the option to also register to vote, but under the automatic system, customers are instead always prompted to register to vote unless they opt out.
Sen. Dawn Keefer, R-Cumberland, established the state's chapter of the Freedom Caucus in 2022 and led the group at the time of the press release last year. She did not respond to an interview request for this story.
The Auditor General's letter initiating the audit did not mention reviewing citizenship, though that would be covered in the stated scope of the audit. Registering non-citizens would violate state and federal laws.
The two state agencies involved in the audit, the Department of Transportation and the governor's Office of Administration, "have been engaged and cooperative with the Auditor General throughout the course of the audit of PennDOT's Automatic Voter Registration system," said Alexis Campbell, PennDOT's press secretary.
"The audit is ongoing, with regular contact between all parties," Campbell said.
A suite of Republican investigations opened, ongoing
The Motor Voter audit is one of three election-related investigations announced by Republican elected officials leading up to Election Day. None of which have provided any conclusions.
In early October, Rep. Bryan Cutler, R-Drumore Township, claimed a risk of possible double voting, based on a comparison done by Reps. Jamie Flick, R-Lycoming County, and Eric Nelson, R-Westmoreland County, of 2020 voter history data comparing 13 Pennsylvania counties and all of Ohio. The Republicans did not release any details publicly. The Department of State reviewed their findings and said it contained errors, mis-identifying people as double voters.
In late October, Lancaster County's District Attorney and county commissioners announced a criminal investigation into allegedly fraudulent voter registration forms submitted in bulk at the registration deadline. Three other Republican-led district attorney offices — Berks, Monroe and York — also announced similar investigations.
Lehigh County, with Democratic District Attorney Gavin Holihan, also publicly acknowledged an investigation, but only after that county's Republican state Senator Jarrett Coleman put out a statement that the county had also received potentially fraudulent forms. That county will not see any charges related to its investigation, Holihan said.
Republican Dave Sunday, York County's former district attorney, took the investigation to the state's Attorney General's Office when he was sworn in on January 21. Neither his office nor the county district attorney offices have released any information on the investigation, other than to say it is ongoing.
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