Questionable voter registration forms in Pennsylvania linked to Arizona city councilman's company

A polling place sign is displayed in front of the Allentown Public Library in Allentown, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. (For Matt Smith/Spotlight PA)

This article is made possible through Spotlight PA’s collaboration with Votebeat, a nonpartisan news organization covering local election management and voting. Sign up for Votebeat’s free newsletters here.

Two Pennsylvania counties identified an Arizona-based company as the source of thousands of last-minute voter registration applications they investigated.

Field+Media Corps, a company that runs voter registration and outreach programs, is run by Francisco Heredia, a Mesa councilman and longtime voting activist in Arizona.

The company had about 30 forms in Monroe County. “I am responsible for sending” Including postal voting practices “irregular” and included several things the District Attorney’s Office described in a Facebook post: “The people named as applicants were committing fraud because they were not authorized to do so.”

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“In at least one instance, the named applicant is actually deceased.” District Attorney Mike Mancuso said in his post that many of the forms he described as fraudulent belonged to a specific person.

York County Chief Clerk Greg Monskie confirmed to Votebeat on Wednesday that Field+Media Corps submitted the forms the county is investigating. Monskie said the company sent the forms on behalf of the Everybody Votes campaign, a national nonprofit voter registration organization. Everybody Votes did not respond to an email seeking comment.

In a press release Wednesday, the county said it found that roughly 47% of the 3,087 applications under review were legitimate, 29% contained incomplete information and 24% were fraudulent. “Further investigation is underway.” by York County district attorney.

Heredia told Votebeat that the company had not heard from any county officials in Pennsylvania or been notified of any problems with the forms it sent there, but that the company would fully cooperate with any investigation in Pennsylvania.

Company’s voter registration efforts flagged in Arizona

Heredia has served as a councilman in Mesa, a Phoenix suburb of about half a million people, since 2017. He was re-elected in July. Before joining the council, she was for years a leader of Mi Familia Vota, a prominent Latino voter advocacy group, according to her LinkedIn profile. In 2017, she briefly served as public relations manager for the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office.

Field+Media Corps also runs voter registration campaigns for clients in Arizona. Last year, both Navajo and Mohave counties flagged voter registration forms from the company and sent them to the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, office spokesman Richie Taylor confirmed to Votebeat on Thursday.

Taylor said the forms were sent there first before being sent to Navajo and Mohave, which is why Maricopa County prosecutors are leading the investigation. The Maricopa County District Attorney’s Office confirmed the office had opened an investigation into the matter but could not immediately provide further details.

Asked about the Pennsylvania and Arizona investigations, Heredia said the company trains workers to fill out the forms correctly. When asked about characterizing some of the submitted forms as fraudulent, Heredia said Field+Media Corps has a zero-tolerance policy against employees who submit fraudulent forms.

He said his company was contacted last year by the Maricopa County District Attorney’s Office regarding an investigation into two surveyors the company employed. Field+Media Corps laid off those two workers, Heredia said.

Field+Media Corps in Arizona’s clients or past clients include prominent Arizona voter advocacy groups including LUCHA, Chispa AZ and CPLC Action Fund, according to the company’s website.

This election cycle, the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office flagged FieldCorps, the parent company of Field+Media Corps, for submitting a high rate of incomplete or inaccurate forms, office spokeswoman Sierra Ciaramella confirmed Wednesday.

Heredia said he is in regular contact with the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office and has been for years, ever since he started doing the job in Arizona. He said the company is open to ways it can evolve into more accurate forms and that his company has a good working relationship with the district.

Arizona has long been plagued by problems with incomplete, inaccurate and potentially fraudulent voter registration forms. A Votebeat analysis earlier this year found that the problem left potential voters off voter rolls just before the state’s voter registration deadline.

When county officials receive a missing or incorrect form, county employees reach out to voters to fill out the forms. If they fail to do this, registration will not be made.

Unfounded allegations emerge as Pennsylvania continues investigation

Heredia said his company reviews forms collected by workers in Pennsylvania before sending them to check for similar signatures on multiple forms. But even if they detect problems, they are required to report them under state law.

Heredia confirmed that his company is working on voter registration efforts on behalf of Everybody Votes. He said his company operated for more than five months before the registration deadline in Pennsylvania, sending out forms almost every two weeks. He said election officials did not tell the company there were any problems with the forms at this time.

He said his company no longer has employees in the state because the voter registration deadline has passed.

Pennsylvania is a hotly contested swing state widely seen as key to the presidential race, and its election is under intense national scrutiny.

Former President Donald Trump addressed the states’ announcements in social media posts this week, falsely claiming that fraudulent ballots were found in Pennsylvania. Election experts have pushed back, stating that the applications were flagged as potentially problematic by election officials, a sign that the system was working, and that no votes had been taken.

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In the third Pennsylvania county conducting an investigation, Lancaster County, authorities declined to identify the group or individual who submitted the 2,500 forms they were investigating. Republican District Attorney Heather Adams announced at a press conference last week that about 60 percent of the applications her detectives have examined so far are fraudulent, while the others are legitimate. He has since described “hundreds of” The applications were alleged to be fraudulent, but an exact number was not given or any criminal charges related to the investigation were announced.

Adams declined to comment on whether Field+Media Corps had submitted applications.

Mancuso, of Monroe County, wrote on Facebook that his office was working with investigators from the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office and others who are continuing the investigation.

The Pennsylvania Department of State emphasized in a statement Wednesday night that York and Lancaster counties identified potential irregularities only in voter registration applications and did not process them, not in absentee ballot applications or returned ballots.

“The process by which counties flag and investigate these potentially fraudulent voter registration applications demonstrates that the security measures built into our election system are working.” State Department spokesman Geoff Morrow said:

Carter Walker is a reporter for Votebeat in partnership with Spotlight PA. Contact Carter at [email protected].

Jen Fifield is a Votebeat reporter based in Arizona. Contact Jen at [email protected].

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