Feds: Luzerne County tossed Trump ballots in the trash

* Initial letter from US Attorney David Freed to Shelby Watchilla, Luzerne County 

* Updated letter from US Attorney

* Response from Luzerne County

If voter fraud is going to happen anywhere, it's the corrupt state of Pennsylvania. Months after Judge of Elections Domenick DeMuro plead guilty to several charges related to election tampering, another federal investigation lead investigators to Luzerne County, where several ballots were found discarded.

In a letter sent on Thursday by US Attorney David Freed to Shelby Watchilla, the director of Luzerne County's Board of Elections, he said that investigators discovered several military ballots that were illegally opened and disposed of. 

The ballots arrive in an envelope and are supposed to stay that way until 7am on election day. Not only were several of these ballots removed and discarded, but two of them were apparently re-sealed into official envelopes.

Staff, of course, said they thought they were just following orders or some such, but the letter goes on to state:

In addition, our investigation has revealed that all or nearly all envelopes received in the elections office were opened as a matter of course.  It was explained to investigators the envelopes used for official overseas, military, absentee and mail-in ballot requests are so similar, that the staff believed that adhering to the protocol of preserving envelopes unopened would cause them to miss such ballot requests.  Our interviews further revealed that this issue was a problem in the primary election--therefore a known issue--and that the problem has not been corrected.

In addition to Ms. Watchilla, the Luzerne County website lists the following board members:

Jeanette Tait, Chairman	Democrat	07/22/2024
Peter Ouellette, Vice-Chairman	Democrat	12/31/2021
Keith Gould, Secretary	Republican	12/31/2021
Joyce Dombroski-Gebhardt	Republican	12/31/2023
Audrey Serniak	Democrat	12/31/2023

    

Luzerne County has issued a response here, blaming a "temporary seasonal independent contractor", and stating that multiple law enforcement agencies searched the dumpsters and that election staff did not know who the ballots were cast for until after Freed released his statement.