Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar on Wednesday said an election worker in Luzerne County made a mistake when they threw out nine military ballots, and it was not "intentional fraud."
During an online press conference, Boockvar said that the "investigation is still going on, but from the initial reports we've been given, this was a bad error. This was not intentional fraud. So training, training, training." The ballots were found in Wilkes-Barre, and the unidentified worker who tossed them has been fired.
During a Fox News Radio interview last Thursday, President Trump announced that several ballots in his favor had been discarded, and a few hours later, the Trump-nominated U.S. Attorney in Harrisburg, Dave Freed, took the unusual step of releasing a statement saying an investigation into the matter was underway.
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Jonathan Marks, Pennsylvania's deputy secretary for elections, told The Associated Press that sometimes military and overseas ballots are returned to Luzerne County in envelopes that do not clearly indicate they are ballots, and workers are now receiving extensive training on how to handle them. The unidentified worker who was fired did not ask for help with the ballots before they were discarded, AP reports, and it is unclear who found them.
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