By Matt Margolis Sep 24, 2020 4:48 PM EST
Mail-in ballots from the military
serving overseas were found in the trash in Pennsylvania. The
ballots were discovered during an investigation into election issues in Luzerne
County, Pennsylvania. They were all votes for President Trump.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office Middle
District of Pennsylvania released a statement on the situation on Thursday:
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.
While nine ballots have been
recovered, it is not clear how many were actually discarded.
This announcement comes on the heels
of a report that three trays of mail, including absentee ballots, were discovered in a
ditch in Wisconsin.
White House Press Secretary Kayleigh
McEnany addressed both these stories on Thursday.
