Butler County officials found no substantiated evidence of election fraud in either 2020 or 2021, county commissioners said Wednesday, after conducting three investigations.

Those three investigations were launched based on one allegation of altered write-in votes, a judge of elections allegedly refusing to use provisional ballots and a voter whom the state of Florida believed cast ballots in two states.

The case of alleged altered write-in votes came from Clearfield Township, county solicitor Wil White said, in a race for judge of elections. Charlie Johnson, who ultimately was elected elections judge in Clearfield Township, alleged a letter was added to his name after ballots were cast.

Butler County’s election computation board, according to a petition filed in county court related to Johnson’s race for judge of elections, improperly determined “Charlie L. Johnston” — with an erroneous “t” — won the race, but found no records of a voter in Clearfield Township with that name.

White said the county Board of Elections referred Johnson’s accusations of ballot manipulation to the district attorney to investigate.

“At the conclusion of the investigation, it was determined that none of the write-in ballots that were in the possession of the Bureau of Elections, which had come from the Clearfield Township polling location, nor any records at the Bureau of Elections had been altered or forged in any way,” White said, reading from the district attorney’s written response. “In fact, the only document that showed any type of alteration was the record which was in the physical possession of Mr. Johnson.”

Johnson, according to the district attorney’s response, did not show county investigators the documents “so that they might be tested further.” Following the investigation, White said, the county prosecutor determined there were no crimes committed beyond a reasonable doubt.

The investigation, however, did conclude Johnson won the race. Butler County, in October 2021, petitioned the county court to add Johnson’s name to the ballot for the 2021 general election, a request the court granted.

Also in Clearfield Township, according to White, a poll watcher informed the county that a judge of elections — not Johnson — “refused” to use provisional ballots or, when voters surrendered mail ballots to vote in person, require a sworn affidavit.

“This judge was accused of, basically, having made a stink to the effect of, ‘I’m not using those green ballots, I don’t care what anyone says,’” White said.

The county noticed as well that it received no provisional ballots from Clearfield Township.

As with the other judge of elections allegation, White said the elections board sought an investigation by the district attorney. The county prosecutor was unable to reach a conclusion, White said, because the elections judge’s relationships in the community precluded witnesses from talking “badly of them.”

“When the district attorney’s office came to me and said, ‘We’re having trouble getting anywhere on this,’ we approached the individual and said, ‘You have two choices,’” White said. “’Resign immediately’ — because this person had been elected to the position — ‘or we’re going to make it public and try and prosecute you, even though we’d probably lose.’”

The elections judge opted to resign, White said. By law, the county solicitor added, that person is no longer eligible to hold elected office.

“I will point out that it has nothing to do with tampering of votes or changing a vote,” White said. “It was simply, rather than having them (voters) vote on provisional (ballots), this person was letting them vote on a standard ballot.”

Another instance of potential election fraud of which the county was notified, White said, was when Florida notified Butler County of an individual who may have voted both in Pennsylvania and in Florida.

“I investigated and we determined this individual was primarily from Butler, but had traveled to Florida to take care of a sick relative and had already registered to vote by mail here,” White said. “And then, because they were in Florida at the time of the election, registered and voted in Florida. We investigated and determined this person did not vote here in Pennsylvania and, as such, did not violate the law.”

White added that while it is illegal to vote twice, it is not against the law to be registered to vote in two states. There are many reasons someone may register to vote in two states, White said. For instance, someone may be retired, or might be a student, and could live in one state during the primary elections and another during the general election.

These three are the only cases, according to White, in response to a question submitted to the county by voters about whether there was “any evidence of intentional fraud in Butler County” that the county was able to investigate.

“Those are the only three items I’m aware of,” he said.