Republicans scrutinizing automatic voter registration in Pennsylvania

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Republicans are stepping up scrutiny of Pennsylvania’s system for registering people to vote through its driver’s licensing centers, six weeks before what is expected to be a close presidential contest in the battleground state.

Auditor General Tim DeFoor, a Republican running for re-election in the Nov. 5 election, last week launched an audit of Pennsylvania’s so-called motor voter system.

The audit comes one year after Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration began automatic voter registration at driver’s licensing centers. The audit is to include checking to see whether noncitizens are properly screened out from registering to vote — dovetailing with a top election-year issue for many Republicans nationally who are questioning whether noncitizens are registering to vote.

Shapiro’s introduction of automatic voter registration last year drew condemnation from Republicans and former President Donald Trump and threats of litigation. At the time, some two dozen states already had authorized a version of automatic voter registration and no court challenge in Pennsylvania has emerged.

The Shapiro administration says non-citizens are not allowed to register to vote and that there is no evidence that noncitizens have registered to vote in Pennsylvania.

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