Politics

At least seven mail-in military ballots found discarded in Pennsylvania

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PHOTO CREDITS: POLITICO

At least seven mail-in military ballots, all marked for President Donald Trump, were found discarded in Pennsylvania this week, the DOJ has confirmed. 

Luzerne County District Attorney Stefanie Salavantis asked the DOJ and FBI to open an investigation into the discarded ballots on Monday following reports of “potential issues with a small number of mail-in ballots at the Luzerne County Board of Elections,” the Department of Justice (DOJ) said in a release. “At this point we can confirm that a small number of military ballots were discarded,” the DOJ said. The DOJ initially said the discarded ballots consisted of nine for Trump. A revised release said seven of the nine were for Trump and that the contents of the other two unknown. Trump won Luzerne County by nearly 20 percentage points in 2016. While nine ballots were recovered, it is not clear if any others were discarded already (PJ Media). 

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany addressed the military ballots during a press briefing Thursday. “The president wants to get rid of mass mail-out voting,” McEnany said. “He’s said clearly that could go either way, it could damage either candidate’s chances because it is a system that is subject to fraud.” She also cited a case in Greenville, Wis., where three trays of mail were reportedly found in a ditch, local affiliate Fox 11 reported (The Hill).

In a statement to reporters on Thursday, Trump mentioned the discarded Pennsylvania ballots, as well as a handful of Wisconsin absentee ballots that were reportedly discarded in a river. “We have to be very careful with the ballots… it’s a whole big scam,” he added. When a reporter corrected his claim, arguing that the ballots were unmarked, the president reiterated that they were nevertheless found in the river. “We want to make sure the election is honest, and I’m not sure that it can be… with this whole situation.” While Trump has repeatedly claimed this opens the election up to unprecedented fraud, Democrats have claimed there is no evidence of any large-scale fraud related to mail-in ballots. Republicans point to instances of voter fraud in states like California, New Hampshire, New Jersey, and elsewhere that could translate to larger fraud if carried out nationally (RT). 

ARTICLE: CARSON CHOATE

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