According to a complaint brought by America First Legal ( AFL ) and first obtained by The Federalist, Pennsylvania’s State Department issued a directive in 2018 that may allow noncitizens and other ineligible voters to register to vote in violation of the 2002 Help America Vote Act ( HAVA ).
A vote must supply a valid driver’s license number on his voter registration type, or the last four digits of his Social Security number if and only if he has no pilot’s license. Election officials are therefore required to check the accuracy of the numbers provided against state and federal data before acting on their own. The goal of the method is to make sure that all potential voters are available. ( Notably, foreign nationals can still obtain a Social Security number or driver’s license. )
AFL and the law firm Zimolong LLC argue that a 2018 order that the Pennsylvania Department of State issued to all 67 counties that “may certainly be rejected based solely on the individual’s identifying numbers on their program and the assessment collection numbers” is a violation of HAVA and could place unsuitable voters, including noncitizens, on the country’s voter rolls.
HAVA states that a voter registration application “may not be accepted or processed by a State unless the application includes” the driver’s license number of” a current and valid driver’s license” or” the last 4 digits of the applicant’s social security number”. ( The only exception is if a voter has been issued neither, in which case HAVA requires the state to “assign the applicant a number that will serve to identify the applicant for voter registration purposes. )
The Pennsylvania directive, according to the AFL complaint, “erroneously concludes that an application must be accepted if it contains any driver’s license or social security number rather than a valid one that can be verified against databases.”
The complaint states that the directive “does not just violate federal law; it also creates a regime where an uncountable number of ineligible voters, including non-citizens,” can register to cast ballots in all state and federal elections in the Commonwealth.
AFL and Zimolong want to “replace it with a directive that complies with HAVA” and compel the state to repeal it. In particular, the complaint contends that counties should reject applications that provide either a driver’s license or social security number” that does not match state databases in accordance with HAVA,” and that the new directive should require the state to verify the voter’s information before approving the application.
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AFL Executive Director Gene Hamilton stated in a statement that the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has adopted and maintained a voter registration process that clearly and unambiguously violates fundamental federal law. The Pennsylvania Secretary of State must stop this unlawful practice and abide by federal law to prevent election fraud.
The Federalist’s election correspondent, Brianna Lyman.
