PHILADELPHIA _ Less than a week after searching the Delaware County office of a Democratic grass-roots organization for evidence of voter-registration fraud, state police Thursday raided a second office _ this one in Philadelphia.
Agents executed the warrant at FieldWorks LLC's office in the Hunting Park section of Philadelphia after 5 p.m., seeking, among other things, forms that could be used to "construct fraudulent voter registration forms" and "completed voter registration forms containing same or similar identifying information of individuals on multiple forms," court documents show.
As in the raid last week in Norwood, the latest search warrant said investigators were seeking to prove "tampering with public records or information" and violations of a federal act that regulates military and overseas ballots.
No charges have been filed against FieldWorks, a Washington-based organization, and the attorney general's office has declined to discuss its investigation, or say if it could translate into any kind of fraud at the polls on Election Day.
People familiar with the probe say that investigators will follow the evidence wherever it leads, but at the moment, there is no suggestion of an effort to cast illegal ballots in next week's election.
Instead, investigators are exploring whether FieldWorks paid canvassers may have created or doctored forms to inflate the number of new voters they could claim to have registered.
But the latest raid signaled a widening probe into the organization _ and came hours after U.S. Rep. Pat Meehan, a Republican congressman and former federal prosecutor, accused Fieldworks or its employees of a criminal conspiracy in connection with disputed voter registration forms in Delaware County.
According to the FieldWorks website, it recruits hourly workers across the U.S. It is unclear whether the organization requires employees to meet specific quotas, though independent job sites for the organization mention their existence.
At the Hunting Park office Friday _ in a converted factory on Scotts Lane _ plainclothes investigators, alongside uniformed Pennsylvania State Police officers, delivered the warrant. FieldWorks employees on site declined comment.
Since late last week, FieldWorks has maintained it has "zero tolerance for fraud" and vowed to continue to work with authorities "to seek the prosecution of anyone involved in wrongdoing."
At a news conference in Media hours earlier, Meehan criticized the organization for "jamming" 7,000 registration forms "down the throats" of the voter registration officials in an attempt to overwhelm them with forms, some of which contained fraudulent information.
Meehan, a former district attorney and U.S. attorney, cited applications from 52 voters registered at Delaware County addresses that do not exist, and forms from one apparent voter who appeared to be registered nine times at five different addresses. He provided information on another apparent voter who used five different Social Security numbers.
Delaware County Democratic Party Chair David Landau responded Thursday by lambasting Meehan and other Republican leaders who participated in the news conference, claiming their actions were a "blatant attempt at voter suppression."
"When you register 7,000 people, there are going to be inadvertent mistakes," Landau said. " ... But with the question of timeliness, they are trying to deprive 7,000 people" from voting.
The Delaware County Voter Registration Commission _ a bipartisan board _ will hold a hearing Friday to determine whether the forms were timely submitted.
