At least 119 voter registration applications in Florida appear to be falsified, says officials with the Lake County Supervisor of Elections Office.
"My office became aware of a potential problem last week when several voters contacted our office after receiving new Voter Information Cards indicating their party affiliation had been changed from Democrat to Republican,” Supervisor of Elections Alan Hays said in a statement.
Hays went on to say that the documents appear to be either new falsified voter registration cards, party switches from Democrat to Republican or no party affiliation to Republican. He also said some fake applications were filed for new voters but were not processed.
Hays also said that none of the altered registrations were switched to the Democratic Party.
Investigators believe the paperwork was filed by a third-party voter registration field worker, who submitted the applications to the Seminole and Orange counties offices. The voter registration company was not identified, but officials said they are cooperating with the investigation. Officials believe at least 30 voters’ party affiliations were illegally changed to Republican.
“We do not expect to have more than 25-30 people to have experienced this,” said Hays in a Wednesday news conference. “We think this number is small at this time but we’re being proactive to make sure we have a system in place that no matter how large these numbers may be, we have a system in place.”
The Lake County Sheriff’s Office said they have a person of interest at this time but no arrests have been made. The State Attorney’s Office is also assisting with the investigation.
Florida’s primary election for both Republicans and Democrats is March 17.
If you live in Lake County voter and want to know if you’ve been affected, you can visit the supervisor's website.
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This article appears in Mar 5-12, 2020.