With what may be one of the most consequential elections in American history this November, some local voters are worried about the security of the ballot box and preventing voter fraud.
Radnor resident John Child released a list of 12,000 possible “ghost” voters who no longer live where they registered to vote in Delaware County. Another Delco resident, Dean Dreibelbis, turned in a spreadsheet with 14,519 names.
However, Board of Elections Director James Allen said at the board meeting Monday the county follows the letter of the law when removing voters from its rolls.
Even if someone moves, the law says they cannot be removed unless they fail to vote in two federal elections. They also send letters to request voters identified as changing their residence to verify their current address.
“We’re required under Pennsylvania law to receive an affirmative response,” he said. “What you’re asking would violate both state and federal law. We do not have the power of summarily removing any individual from the voter rolls simply because they filed a national change of address.”
He also randomly checked the list of 12,000 voters submitted by Child. Some had moved but didn’t meet the requirement of not voting in two consecutive federal elections.
Josie Zostik of Brookhaven said a “ghost voter” is “someone who died, someone who is in jail, someone who is mentally incompetent, someone who has moved and registered elsewhere.
“That’s what a group of us has focused our efforts on. The NCOA, which is National Change of Address Records, indicates there are almost 40,000 voters who moved from the county between 2019 and 2024. We’ve challenged about 14,500 of those. Or just 40 percent.
“We’ve compiled these on detailed spreadsheets…I’m sure you can agree we all want to prevent dual voting, and, in this day and age, it’s pretty easy to check the records…We don’t want to take away anyone’s right to vote,” she said.
Glenn Mills resident Dr. Patricia Bleasdale said, “The National Voter Registration Act of 1993 governs much of how the county must clean up apparent errors or obsolete records in the voter rolls. Due to a lot of confusion in how to apply the BVRA, Congress wrote a detailed clarification which states ‘the name of a voter may not be removed from the official list of eligible voters except by reason of death, criminal conviction, mental incapacity, change in residence or voter request.’ So, change in residence is deemed by Congress as a completely valid reason for removing a voter from the voter rolls in and of itself.”
Dreibelbis, also of Genn Mills, said, “14,500 is probably very low. The Postal Service said they only get 40 percent of people who change their addresses with them. Five thousand two hundred voters registered five years ago and never voted.”
Drexel Hill resident Joy Schwartz, who ran for county council last year, said, “Election Watch posted there are nearly 1.5 million invalid voters in Pennsylvania whose names are still on the books. It seems like ERIC, that organization that Delaware County relies upon and Pennsylvania relies upon to clean the voter rolls is not doing a very good job.
“We did have an opportunity to dump ERIC recently. But instead, this board voted to remain with that organization. And that organization is swelling our voter rolls with ghost voters.”
Allen suggested the state law would need to be changed to make it easier to remove inactive voters.
“We have not found anyone on that list that could have, should have, been removable prior to this upcoming election,” Allen said. “There’s always been this lag in the system to prevent anyone from being disenfranchised. We’re doing what we’re allowed to.”
“I would love at a minimum [to do] a biannual mailing to every single voter. I also believe a change in state law needs to occur.”
“I hope you understand our voter registration team takes it seriously,” he said.
With others helping him, Dreibelbis is sending challenge forms for voters who appear to have moved to the Pennsylvania Department of State, which oversees elections.
Asked to comment about the residents’ complaints, department spokesman Matt Heckel said counties are responsible for maintaining voter rolls.
“The department advises counties of list maintenance activities and deadlines on a routine basis, and it provides training for county election directors on how to conduct the statutorily required process of updating Pennsylvania’s voter rolls. That statutory process must be consistent with the requirements of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) and the Pennsylvania voter registration law, which closely follows the NVRA.
“Pennsylvania counties do a robust job in fulfilling their responsibilities to update voter rolls, including sending over 160,000 notices to Pennsylvanians who may have moved last year… Canceling voters on the basis of unverified and unsolicited lists would violate federal and state law, risk disenfranchising voters, and could subject a county to litigation. Further information on voter roll list maintenance can be found in the Department’s Annual Report on the Administration of Voter Registration in Pennsylvania.”
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