Election experts have accused the Justice Department of politicizing a still-pending investigation.
A temporary employee “incorrectly discarded” a handful of ballots in mid-September, the county manager of Luzerne County, Pa. said Thursday, but county officials were unaware of who the ballots were cast for until the Department of Justice identified the voters as supporters of President Donald Trump.
In a lengthy statement issued on Friday, County Manager C. David Pedri laid out how ballots were discarded and how county officials discovered the problem and notified law enforcement.
The ballots shot into national news on Thursday when the DOJ issued a pair of unusual press releases in apparent coordination with the White House, which teased the announcement earlier in the day. Election experts accused the Justice Department of politicizing a still-pending investigation — and pointed to the revelation that seven of the nine discarded ballots had been cast for Trump as especially concerning.
Pedri’s statement said that an unidentified “temporary seasonal independent contractor” was assigned to sort mail received by the elections bureau, and started work on Sept. 14.
On Sept. 16, Luzerne County Elections Director Shelby Watchilla discovered that the worker “incorrectly discarded into the office trash UMOVA ballots” — which are ballots provided to Americans living overseas and military voters — and she “immediately began an internal inquiry and informed her direct supervisor,” Perdri said. Following the inquiry, county staff contacted the local district attorney, who referred the matter to the U.S. Attorney for the region.
Pedri said all garbage from the Elections Bureau for the days the temporary worker was employed was “placed in a dumpster and secured” by county staff. “Each bag of garbage from the entire building in the dumpster was searched by the Federal Bureau of Investigations, the Luzerne County District Attorney’s Office, Pennsylvania State Police as well as Luzerne County staff. All items of concern were taken into custody by the Federal Bureau of Investigations.”
The statement said that local elections staffers “were unaware for whom the ballots were cast until” Thursday’s announcement from the DOJ. The ballots remain in FBI custody, and the county said it will attempt to contact voters who were affected when they are returned.
Election experts and advocates have been sharply critical of the Trump administration’s involvement — which reached all the way to the Oval Office on Thursday.
“It is really improper for DOJ to be putting out a press release with partial facts,” Justin Levitt, a professor at Loyola Law School, told POLITICO on Thursday. “And it is career-endingly improper to designate the candidate for whom the votes are cast. There is no federal statute on which the identity of the preferred candidate depends.” Levitt said that it wasn’t necessarily problematic that an investigation was opened in the first place.
Mike Mikus, a spokesman for The Voter Project, a Pennsylvania-based voter advocacy group, said the timing of a lawsuit by Trump’s campaign also raises questions.
……..
- Discussion
-
A temporary employee “incorrectly discarded” a handful of ballots in mid-September, officials in Luzerne County, Pa. were unaware of who the ballots were cast for until the DOJ identified the voters as supporters of President Trumphttps://t.co/QAlTJhiexJ
— POLITICO (@politico) September 25, 2020
This will be used to bolster Trump’s claim of massive voter fraud in Pennsylvania; he has a lawsuit pending against the state based on this fraud claim. The DOJ under the leadership of Trump’s lapdog, Bill Barr, has the task of looking for any and all evidence of alleged voter fraud for these lawsuits. Basically, the DOJ is doing Trump’s dirty work. And I suppose if the DOJ can’t find any evidence, it will make some up.
Smells like a set up to me. A temporary employee? The DOJ immediately using the incident as a political maneuver? Illegally releasing voter choice? And it just happens to be in a swing state. This is like something from a bad movie where you can already guess the ending in the first 10 minutes. Soon to be occurring in swing state near you.
Here's what happened.
Nine voters sent in their absentee ballots, but didn't send them in the required privacy envelopes.
Elections staff saw the regular envelopes and opened them like regular mail, spoiling the ballot.
Not a "conspiracy to steal the election." https://t.co/73cQBxlxD2
— Donny Ferguson 🗽 (@DonnyFerguson) September 25, 2020
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.