Several discarded absentee military ballots marked for Trump discovered as FBI insists voter fraud is localized & minor

At least seven mail-in military ballots marked for President Donald Trump were found discarded in Pennsylvania, the Justice Department has confirmed. Trump also called attention to thrown-out absentee ballots in Wisconsin.

The DOJ confirmed local reports that nine military mail-in ballots had been recovered by investigators in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania on Thursday. Seven had been marked for Trump, and two were sealed in their envelopes, with the voter’s selection not visible. Not all of the ballots could be attributed to specific voters.

The department’s inquiry is reportedly “ongoing,” and US Attorney David Freed promised to share the results with county officials later in the day. An earlier statement reporting all nine of the military ballots were marked for Trump was withdrawn and reissued with the clarified numbers. Luzerne County District Attorney Stefanie Salavantis began looking into issues with mail-in ballots last week, passing it on to federal authorities on Monday.

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 that “they throw them out if they have the Trump name on them,” 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,” he continued, blaming “unsolicited ballots… millions being sent to everybody.”

FBI Director Christopher Wray addressed Trump’s warnings of potentially looming election fraud, insisting his agency had not seen “any kind of coordinated national voter fraud in a major election, whether it’s by mail or otherwise” during sworn testimony before Congress on Thursday. However, he admitted the FBI had seen voter fraud “at the local level.” 

Early voting has begun in several states across the US, and many have extended mail-in voting dates due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Trump has repeatedly warned this opens the election up to unprecedented fraud, while Democrats have attempted to downplay the myriad past instances of voter fraud in states like California, New Hampshire, New Jersey, and elsewhere.

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