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Hello, Pennsylvania!

We are less than two weeks from Election Day, so if you aren’t ready, you better get ready quick!

The deadline to register passed on Monday, and next Tuesday is the deadline to request a mail ballot. Before voters go to the polls, we have a few more stories to bring you.

First up, the Department of Justice continues its pursuit of noncitizen voting crimes across the country, including with four new charges in Pennsylvania. Do these new charges flip the script on vote fraud being prevalent? Not really. By my calculation, even if these allegations are proven true, the supposed fraudulently cast ballots still only account for 0.00024% of ballots cast in the state since the 2015 primary. Read the story here. 

Next up, did the Trump mail voting USPS executive order, and the ensuing court battle, discourage some voters from using mail voting? Maybe. Data shows requests are down among Democrats and organizers are saying they’re hearing that for some voters, the executive order is their reason. But the data isn’t entirely clear, and there could be more than one reason behind the voters’ decision. Check out the report here. 

”It is therefore critical that counties understand how to respond in the event that federal actors attempt to interfere with the voting or counting processes.”

This week’s quote comes from a letter the ACLU and The Public Interest Law Center sent to election officials in all 67 counties. The letter, obtained by Votebeat, reminds them of the law surrounding polling places and access to election materials. It reflects the concerns we’ve been reporting on this year about interference in the election from the Trump administration.

Read the letter here.  

No, 10 “forged” mail ballots were not turned in to Dauphin County. 

Rep. Scott Perry made this claim during a debate last week against his challenger for the 10th Congressional District seat, Democrat Janelle Stelson.

What did happen was that 10 applications for mail ballots were turned in to the county with repeated signatures. They were rejected and referred to the county district attorney for investigation.

Huge distinction: Applications are not the same as ballots.

Read more about this from WITF’s Jordan Wilkie, whose reporting served as the basis for this week’s fact check.

What else should I look into? You can always reach me by email at [email protected], on X @ByCarterWalker, or on Bluesky @bycarterwalker.bsky.social. Follow me on TikTok and Instagram for video explainers of Pennsylvania voting and elections news.

And if you know someone who might be interested in our reporting on elections and voting throughout Pennsylvania, forward them this newsletter — they can sign up for it here.

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