Keystone Today

As part of a state-by-state review of the 2020 General Election results, the non-profit Voter Reference Foundation (VRF) has discovered 41,503 discrepancies between the Pennsylvania voters officially recorded as having cast ballots and the total ballots certified per the state's official canvass.

Of Pennsylvania's 67 counties, the VRF audit shows 57 of them certified more ballots cast in last November's election than their records report registered voters as having voted.

VRF Executive Director Gina Swoboda said they have yet to determine the reason for the discrepancies.  

"It is important to understand that we are publishing official county and state voting records," Swoboda, a former Arizona election official under two administrations, told Keystone Today. "Basic accounting principles suggest the numbers we are comparing should match and they don't. We need to get to the bottom of why that is the case."

In compiling the voter registration lists from counties and states after the election and certification process, VRF, which publishes VoteRef.com is comparing whether the number of ballots certified in 2020 matches the number of voters. In Pennsylvania, VRF compared the number of voters reported on voter registration lists collected in early 2021 to the number of ballots cast per the states' official canvasses, certified in December 2020.

The discrepancy could be even higher in Pennsylvania, Swoboda said; it would be 56,812 if the VRF "didn't count" 15,309 voters whose records were missing either the correct voting date or method of voting on the registration list. VRF speculated that those voters cast ballots in 2020, but the records are inconclusive.

The largest discrepancies were found in Allegheny (6,413), Philadelphia (5,747) and Delaware (4,869) counties.

Officials in the Pennsylvania Secretary of State's office did not respond to a request to explain the discrepancies.

In Nevada, whose official vote counts were the first analyzed by VRF, a discrepancy of 8,964 was found between voters on the registration lists and ballots certified by the state. In all states examined so far, discrepancies exist. Those discrepancies will be revealed as other states' voter rolls are published in coming weeks, Swoboda said. VoteRef plans to publish a significant number of state rolls by the end of 2021.

VoteRef.com is a permanent reference source operated by VRF. Swoboda said that those who access the website can search by name or address for registered voters. They also will be able to examine voting histories — a list of elections that voters participated in, as well as other important election data obtained via official sources.

The VRF was created by Restoration Action, an educational 501c4 organization founded by West Point graduate and successful entrepreneur Doug Truax. A former U.S. Senate candidate in Illinois, Truax has promoted a 10-point plan for election reform.

More Pennsylvania ballots cast than voters who voted? 

County	Total Ballots Certified	Registered Voters Ballots Cast	Difference
Adams	56,930	56,692	238
Allegheny	726,720	720,307	6,413
Armstrong	36,471	36,232	239
Beaver	94,645	94,100	545
Bedford	27,677	27,492	185
Berks	208,010	207,197	813
Blair	63,889	63,675	214
Bradford	30,388	30,313	75
Bucks	397,289	396,070	1,219
Butler	113,899	113,957	-58
Cambria	70,995	70,839	156
Cameron	2,455	2,446	9
Carbon	33,753	33,637	116
Centre	78,094	77,150	944
Chester	316,586	313,388	3,198
Clarion*	19,574	19,431	143
Clearfield	39,610	39,160	450
Clinton	17,716	17,491	225
Columbia	31,445	31,362	83
Crawford	42,370	42,221	149
Cumberland	142,732	142,444	288
Dauphin	149,304	148,518	786
Delaware	330,150	325,281	4,869
Elk	17,035	17,048	-13
Erie	137,944	137,960	-16
Fayette	62,397	61,833	564
Forest	2,664	2,662	2
Franklin**	81,208	81,039	169
Fulton	8,034	8,005	29
Greene	17,776	17,689	87
Huntingdon	22,906	22,819	87
Indiana	41,429	40,940	489
Jefferson	22,864	22,519	345
Juniata	12,108	12,045	63
Lackawanna	116,003	116,169	-166
Lancaster	282,538	280,745	1,793
Lawrence	46,319	45,873	446
Lebanon	72,060	71,796	264
Lehigh	186,154	185,273	881
Luzerne	154,134	149,669	4,465
Lycoming	59,481	59,213	268
McKean	15,391	19,552	-4,161
Mercer	58,295	58,126	169
Mifflin	21,603	21,504	99
Monroe	83,340	83,040	300
Montgomery	512,768	508,889	3,879
Montour	9,848	9,835	13
Northampton	172,065	171,616	449
Northumberland	42,644	42,435	209
Perry	24,782	24,862	-80
Philadelphia	747,128	741,381	5,747
Pike	32,743	32,567	176
Potter	9,097	9,109	-12
Schuylkill	70,909	70,813	96
Snyder	19,238	19,189	49
Somerset	40,716	40,604	112
Sullivan	3,611	3,614	-3
Susquehanna	21,443	21,546	-103
Tioga	21,207	21,082	125
Union	20,272	20,185	87
Venango	26,653	26,541	112
Warren	20,781	20,966	-185
Washington	119,139	117,479	1,660
Wayne	28,235	28,216	19
Westmoreland	206,088	205,186	902
Wyoming	15,000	14,956	44
York	239,453	238,688	765
Totals	6,956,205	6,914,681	41,524

Source: Voter Reference Foundation / VoteRef.com

* Precinct Oak Hall in Clarion County appears in voter files but is not included in state election results, resulting in 0 Total Ballots Certified for the precinct.

** State results show one voter who is not assigned to a precinct in Franklin County, PA