The Epoch Times
BY
Discarded mail-in ballots were discovered in Pennsylvania, authorities announced Thursday.
“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,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Middle District of Pennsylvania said in its initial statement.
In a revised statement issued later Thursday, the office said seven of the ballots were cast for President Donald Trump while two others “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.”
Federal investigators, including the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the FBI, launched a probe into potential issues with mail-in voting in Luzerne County on Monday, at the request of Luzerne County District Attorney Stefanie Salavantis, a Republican.
Salavantis’s office said in a press release that county administrators reported issues with some mail-in ballots that the Bureau of Elections received last week. The office started an investigation before handing it over to federal authorities.
Shelby Watchilla, the Luzerne County elections director, discovered the issue last week and “immediately reported her findings to the authorities,” Romilda Crocamo, chief county solicitor, said in a statement sent to The Epoch Times.
County officials are cooperating with the review but have no further comment because of the ongoing investigation, he added.
FBI agents working with Pennsylvania State Police have conducted numerous interviews and reviewed physical evidence, U.S. Attorney David Freed’s office said.
County election officials have been cooperating with the probe, according to Freed.
According to the county’s website, military and overseas voters can register and request an official absentee ballot at any time prior to a primary or election.
Luzerne County, with a population of about 317,000, sits in northeast Pennsylvania outside of Scranton.
The county went for Barack Obama in both 2008 and 2012 but swung to Trump in 2016. Trump won it by 20 points, helping him secure the state’s electoral votes.
Matt Wolking, a Trump campaign spokesman, said on social media about the discarded ballots, “Democrats are trying to steal the election.”
I’ve found most people don’t know how their polls work. When you vote by mail your identity and who you voted for is known to the poll worker that opens the envelope. Honest workers make a handwriting comparison and if it’s obviously the same signature it gets re-enveloped and put in a lock box to be opened on election day for counting. If it’s questionable it goes into a challenged box to be opened and scrutinized on election day. If, on election day, another person challenges the signature, it can then be compared to the DL signature. At that point it can be accepted or put in a box that can be looked at later. A not so honest poll official might challenge all of one candidates votes and give the ok for the other any no one knows anything .
If you do vote by mail, follow your vote. There’s a barcode that gets logged. Your request has the same barcode and you can follow your vote as it gets scanned