The Justice Department announced Thursday the DOJ and FBI are investigating discarded mail-in votes in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. A statement issued by U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania David Freed states that nine mail-in military ballots were discovered discarded and that all nine were for President Trump. (Important update at end.)
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On Tuesday three trays of mail that included absentee ballots were found in a ditch in Greenville, Wisconsin.
Statement:
Statement Of U.S. Attorney Freed On Inquiry Into Reports Of Potential Issues With Mail-In Ballots
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HARRISBURG – On Monday, September 21, 2020, at the request of Luzerne County District Attorney Stefanie Salavantis, the Office of the United States Attorney along with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Scranton Resident Office, began an inquiry into reports of potential issues with a small number of mail-in ballots at the Luzerne County Board of Elections.
Since Monday, FBI personnel working together with the Pennsylvania State Police have conducted numerous interviews and recovered and reviewed certain physical evidence. Election officials in Luzerne County have been cooperative. At this point we can confirm that a small number of military ballots were discarded. Investigators have recovered nine ballots at this time. Some of those ballots can be attributed to specific voters and some cannot. All nine ballots were cast for presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Our inquiry remains ongoing and we expect later today to share our up to date findings with officials in Luzerne County. It is the vital duty of government to ensure that every properly cast vote is counted.
Luzerne County is located in northeast Pennsylvania. Voter registration favored Democrats over Republicans by nearly thirty thousand in 2019 according to Wikipedia which touts Luzerne as a bellwether for the state in presidential elections. The city council is about evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans with a Democrat serving as council chair. The town of Wilkes-Barre is the county seat.
The county board of elections currently has three Democrats and two Republicans, with a Democrat serving as chair. Four members are appointed by the city council. Those four members then select the chair.
Trump won Luzerne in 2016 with 58 percent, carrying the state by a slim margin. Barack Obama won there in 2008 and 2012 while winning the state.
UPDATE: DOJ now says seven ballots marked for Trump. The other two were resealed in their envelopes and have not been examined.
…”Of the nine ballots that were discarded and then recovered, 7 were cast for presidential candidate Donald Trump. Two of the discarded ballots had been resealed inside their appropriate envelopes by Luzerne elections staff prior to recovery by the FBI and the contents of those 2 ballots are unknown…”
