Advocacy group accuses Governor Pence of trying to rig the election, officials respond

An advocacy group, Patriot Majority USA, is accusing Governor Mike Pence of “leading a government attack” against some Hoosier voters.

An investigation into voter fraud across the state conducted by Indiana State Police began in August.

Patriot Majority USA says the vice presidential candidate orchestrated the investigation to suppress African-Americans voters. They claim 45,000 Hoosiers could be prevented from voting because of the investigation.

Patriot Majority USA now wants the justice department to look into the state’s investigation. Click here for their full statement.

On Saturday, representatives from both Gov. Pence’s office and the Indiana State Police responded to the allegations and said they aren’t true.

Matt Lloyd, spokesman for Governor Pence:

“These allegations are completely false and beyond absurd. In fact, the Indiana State Police has uncovered strong evidence of voter fraud by Patriot Majority USA. Among Governor Pence’s top priorities is ensuring the integrity of the election and that every single Hoosier vote counts. He has full confidence in the Indiana State Police investigation to achieve this goal.”

Captain David Bursten, Chief Public Information Officer:

“Every allegation by Patriot Majority USA against the Indiana State Police is completely false. In fact, it is clear from evidence documented to date that we have uncovered intentional acts of fraud by representatives of Patriot Majority USA. The Indiana State Police is charged with enforcing the laws of the state of Indiana and we are determined to protect the integrity of the election and every citizen’s right to vote.”

In the statement from ISP, they offer more details into the investigation:

In late August, Hendricks County Voter Registration Officials received voter application forms that appeared to be fraudulent or forged and they contacted the Indiana State Police. Per standard protocol, the ISP then made a courtesy notification to the Indiana Secretary of State’s office that it had initiated an investigation that has since expanded to 56 Indiana counties.

Important points related to this ongoing investigation include:

• The possible fraudulent or false information is a combination of made up names and made up addresses, real names with made up or incorrect addresses and false dates of births with real names as well as combinations of all these examples.
• The expanded number of counties involved leads investigators to believe the total of potentially fraudulent records may be in the thousands, thus creating a potential to disenfranchise many voters           
• A representative sample of voter registration applications received by county voter registration offices suspected of being fraudulent have been COPIED and provided to state police detectives. In all cases the ORIGINAL applications are maintained by the appropriate voter registration office
• When the search warrant was executed on October 4, copies were made of voter application forms and the originals were left with representatives of Indiana Voter Registration Project, a subsidiary of Patriot Majority USA
• In accordance with state law, all voter registration applications received by Indiana voter registration offices are processed according to established policies

There are simple steps citizens can take to confirm they are properly registered by visiting this site: https://indianavoters.in.gov

If after checking this source, a citizen discovers inaccurate information that indicates they could be a victim, they should contact their local voter registration office and the 24-hour Indiana State Police Voter Registration Application Fraud tip line of 888-603-3147.