Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has warned of “horrendous” voter fraud in cities like Philadelphia, St. Louis, and Chicago, and has had his comments debunked by local political leaders.
Local station WPVI-TV combed through ten years of Philadelphia election results and found people listed as active voters years after their death.
South Philadelphia’s Rita Pezzano died in 2006, but Pennsylvania voting records show her exercising her rights in the primary elections in 2008, 2012, 2014, and 2016. Joseph B. Haggarty of Bucks County passed away in 2010, but records show him voting in 2015.
One neighbor said, of Haggarty, "I'm sure he didn't [vote] personally. God rest his soul, he's long gone." A neighbor of Paul Burch, who also died in 2006, suggested that there is no way the latter voted in this year’s primary, "…unless he is coming back from the dead."
Republican Philadelphia City Commissioner Al Schmidt said that the postmortem voting was "an irregularity, there is no doubt about that," and that his office investigated and found no evidence of fraud, though he acknowledged that there is “one guy that is questionable, definitely."
A spokesperson for the Philadelphia Board of Elections released a statement saying, "It is my understanding that the State where the death occurred may or may not notify the State of the deceased… In the past when these incidences have been brought to our attention, the findings are always the same. Human error on the part of a Board Worker is usually the case."
Schmidt explained that people may have signed in the wrong spot and that poll workers sometimes scan the wrong names.
Darryl Turner, whose father Timothy is still listed as an active voter even though he died a decade ago, said, "I figure whoever is running the voter registration ain't doing their job, for them to still have my father's name and for him to have been deceased for 10 years."
Schmidt said the uncovered names will be removed from the rolls.
