“Many members of the state Legislature have detected fraud in state election results where, as abundant evidence shows, it is vanishingly rare. They should focus their fraud radar, instead, on the distribution of billions of dollars in state money.
The fundamental reason that voter fraud is rare is that there is little to gain from the crime, whereas the enormous risk is a felony prosecution. It’s far more likely for people to accept the risk of committing financial fraud because of the tangible payoff: If they get away with it, they get the money.
Lawmakers have introduced multiple bills and even proposed state constitutional amendments to combat phantom election fraud. Meanwhile, Pennsylvania does not have a civil false claims law to battle financial fraud involving public money.
Tuesday, Democratic state Sen. Lindsey M. Williams of Allegheny County and Republican Sen. Kristin Phillips-Hill of York said that they will introduce a bill to create such a law, the Commonwealth Fraud Prevention Act for Taxpayer Accountability.
Like the federal False Claims Act, the proposed state law would protect whistleblowers who report fraud from retaliation in the workplace. The sponsors cited a 2022 report by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, which found that 42% of verified financial fraud is discovered due to tips from individuals, and that 50% of those whistleblowers are employees of the relevant agency.
Pennsylvania would become the 33rd state to have a false claims act,...
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