Ten election irregularities that have occurred during early voting so far

A variety of election irregularities – at least ten of them – have occurred across the country in the weeks leading up to Election Day, as some states have reported record-breaking turnout during early voting. The issues range from burning ballot boxes to fake voter registrations, with the close presidential race just six days away.

The RealClearPolitics polling average shows former President Donald Trump up nationwide by almost a half-point ahead of Vice President Kamala Harris.

Early voting turnout in Georgia and North Carolina has reached record-breaking numbers, with the former passing 3 million on Tuesday and the latter reaching nearly 3 million on Monday. In Illinois, early voting turnout is expected to either meet or exceed the 2020 presidential election’s numbers, as more than 1.4 million voters have cast their ballots as of Monday.

However, there have been numerous election irregularities already, many of which occurred in critical swing states.

Fraudulent voter registration schemes

Prosecutors in Lancaster County said Friday they had uncovered a large-scale scheme to submit fraudulent voter applications that were collected at shopping malls and other locations. Lancaster County District Attorney Heather Adams told a news conference that detectives have found about 60% of some 2,500 voter registrations submitted in recent days to the county's election office were fraudulent.

Adams added that she was aware of at least two other counties that may have similar concerns about recent voter registration applications dropped off in large batches.

Cambria County, Pa., rejected 21 voter registration applications earlier this month after the district attorney’s office investigated and found them to be fraudulent. The applications were submitted by a group after a voter registration event, but the name of the group was undisclosed.

Ballot drop boxes set on fire

Ballot drop boxes have been set on fire in at least three occasions in Portland, Ore., and across the state border in Vancouver, Wash., this month. Two fires occurred early Monday morning, the first in Portland, the second in Vancouver, and another occurred in Vancouver a couple of weeks earlier.

The FBI is investigating the fires, which are all connected. Three ballots were damaged in the Portland fire, while hundreds of ballots were destroyed in Vancouver. Law enforcement officials have identified a suspect vehicle that was seen leaving the ballot box in Portland. The vehicle has been described as a "black or dark-colored 2001-2004 Volvo S-60” that is missing a front plate, according to CNN.

Last week, roughly 20 mail-in ballots were damaged after a ballot drop box was set on fire in Phoenix, Ariz. Dieter Klofkorn, 35, told Phoenix police after he was arrested for a separate crime “that he committed the arson because he wanted to be arrested and that his actions were not politically motivated and not related to anything involving the upcoming election.”

Fraudulent ballots

At least a dozen fraudulent mail ballots were sent in and identified in Mesa County, Colorado, last week, three of which were counted and unable to be removed.

The Colorado secretary of state's office said they learned earlier in the week about the dozen or more ballots that were stolen before the intended voters received them.

All but three ballots were identified before being counted, according to CBS News. Four of the ballots passed the initial round in the signature verification process. Mesa County asked two of the voters to cure their ballots, which led to one of them alerting the county that they had not sent it in.

Voter suppression

The RNC sent a letter to Pennsylvania's secretary of the commonwealth on Monday about concerns that election officials were discouraging voters from casting ballots.

"Voters consistently report to us that at Boards of Election Offices across the Commonwealth, they are told that 'computers are down,' the site will be closing early, they are not accepting any more voters, and that mail ballots will not be counted," reads the letter, sent on behalf of the RNC and the Trump campaign.

Trump's campaign and the RNC won a lawsuit against Bucks County, Pa., on Wednesday to extend early voting by three days.

The lawsuit alleging voter suppression was filed on Tuesday.

The deadline to vote early in Pennsylvania was Oct. 29. There were long lines in Bucks County, according to local reports. 

While the Pennsylvania Department of State stated that everyone who was in line before 5 p.m. could receive a mail-in ballot, there were allegations that voters were turned away before that time.

Ballot harvesting

The South Carolina Republican Party alerted state officials last week of an alleged Democratic ballot harvesting operation in Marion County after finding multiple voters registered at a vacant address. "Ballot harvesting is the practice of permitting any individual to collect and return an unlimited number of mail or absentee ballots without a documented chain of custody or proper state oversight," according to the United States House of Representatives Committee on House Administration.

The state GOP announced that it had found a paid Democratic staffer and 15 other voters registered at an address that is currently vacant.  The party additionally discovered that at least five paid Democratic campaign workers have a different voter registration address than their reported address on a campaign financial disclosure.

Cyberattacks

The Georgia secretary of state's office earlier this month fended off a cyberattack against its website that allows voters to request absentee ballots. The cyberattack was likely sent from a foreign nation, according to the secretary's office, Fox News reported.

The office's cyber team was notified of a dramatic spike in attempts to access the state's absentee ballot portal on Oct. 14. The portal was slowed but not stopped.

D.C. mail-in ballot sent to Michigan

Hillsdale College Vice President and General Counsel Robert Norton received a mail ballot from Washington, D.C., last week that was addressed to a voter who does not live at his residence.

The mail ballot for the general election was addressed to an "Anne V. Palazzo" in Jonesville, Mich. However, Norton said that he is unaware of anyone with that name living at his address for at least 40 years.

Label printing problems

Early voting in Wisconsin was delayed last week due to label printing problems, causing voters to wait hours in line to vote in some cases. The labels with voters' names and addresses are usually printed immediately and must be affixed to the ballot envelopes. However, the labels took at least two minutes to print.

The delays began when early voting started on Tuesday last week and continued into Wednesday.

The Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) recommended clerks write the names and addresses by hand, which the clerks said would take longer and that printed labels are less difficult to read than handwriting.

While state election officials said the label printing delays appeared to be the result of an information technology problem that other government agencies are also facing, a spokeswoman for the governor's office disputed that other areas of state government were experiencing computer slowdowns.

Candidates’ political parties switched on ballots

Minnesota Republican state Rep. Peggy Bennett was incorrectly listed as a Democrat on the ballot in Faribault County during early voting due to a "ballot processing error" that was made by the Minnesota Secretary of State. 

It was discovered when early voting began in Minnesota last month. Bennett said the error had already cost her votes.

The Minnesota Secretary of State's office said the error affected 17 ballots and it was working on fixing the issue. Bennett’s opponent, Joe Staloch, was incorrectly listed as a Republican.

Missing race

Ballots for a precinct in Douglas, Ariz., which is located in Cochise County, were missing a Board of Supervisors’ race last week. A total of 118 active voters were affected, 78 of which had early ballots mailed.

The county said that corrected ballots were to be mailed to affected voters by the end of that week.