The Pennsylvania Department of Health transmits data on resident deaths to the Pennsylvania Department of State, and counties use that data to remove deceased individuals from their voter rolls.
Pennsylvania, a crucial swing state, is often the subject of election-related misinformation. Social media users have falsely suggested that large numbers of migrants are illegally registering to vote in Pennsylvania, incorrectly asserted that the time it takes to count votes in the state is a smokescreen for fraud, and made baseless claims about foul play involving deceased voters.
Now, with just a week to go before Election Day, conspiracy theories and misinformation about voting across the U.S. have been resurgent. While voter fraud does occur, it’s rare and election officials have safeguards to catch it.
“This just comes up over and over again, these concerns about the election system,” said Daniel Mallinson, an associate professor of public policy and administration at Penn State. “All these claims of coordinated voter fraud or noncitizens voting in large numbers, there just isn’t evidence of that.”
Pennsylvania is among nine states that have statutes that prohibit counting absentee ballots that were submitted by voters who die before Election Day, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Ten states have laws that explicitly allow counting absentee ballots cast by voters who die before Election Day.
County election officials in Pennsylvania regularly update their voter registration lists when voters die. The Pennsylvania Department of Health transmits data on resident deaths to the Pennsylvania Department of State, and counties use that data to remove deceased individuals from their voter rolls, Mark O’Neill, a spokesperson for the Department of Health, wrote in an email.
Pennsylvania law allows counties to use information from the health department, published obituaries, and testamentary documents to confirm that a voter has died, according to Geoff Morrow, a spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Department of State.
“Once a voter is marked deceased, the ballot, if returned, cannot be accepted,” said David Voye, division manager for the Allegheny County Elections Division.
Pennsylvania election code states that election results can’t be invalidated just because a recently deceased voter’s mail ballot is included in the count, according to Morrow.
In 2021 a Pennsylvania man who illegally voted for Donald Trump on behalf of his long-dead mother in the 2020 election was sentenced to five years of probation. But such cases are “exceptionally rare,” said Veronica Degraffenreid, senior manager of strategic partnerships in the elections and government program at the Brennan Center and Pennsylvania’s former acting secretary of state.
“There are not, you know, gangs of bad actors co-opting dead voters’ identities,” said Forrest Lehman, Lycoming County’s director of elections.
