The Elections Director of Butler County, Pennsylvania has claimed that the United States Postal Service lost an unknown number of mail-in ballots in the county.
Butler County Bureau of Elections Director Aaron Sheasley reportedly made the announcement at Wednesday’s county commissioner meeting, according to a report by the Butler Eagle.
Sheasley claimed that he had been contacted within the last day by federal postal officials. The officials had told him that there was active investigation surrounding the loss of the ballots.
KDKA-TV reports that many locals who requested mail-in ballots told the outlet that they had not received them.
The largely rural Butler County, located in western Pennsylvania, is a Republican stronghold in the state. Almost all the elected county officials and the county’s Representatives and Senators in the Pennsylvania state legislature are Republicans. Trump won the county with 66.37% of the vote at the last presidential election.
In nearby Michigan, poll workers were told by their state-appointed instructors to deceive voters requesting provisional ballots and destroy their ballots.Sheasley is now urging voters to fill out provisional ballots on election day. This is because voters are no longer able to apply for new absentee or mail-in ballots, as the deadline passed on Tuesday.
National File reported on the situation:
The instructor also told election workers to deliberately deceive people by giving those who had absentee ballots stolen a provisional ballot. After the individual requesting the provisional ballot votes – under the belief that his or her vote had been counted – the ballot is destroyed.
READ MORE: Pennsylvania Election Official: ‘We Will End The GOP Permanently’
In Pennsylvania, state election officials have come out and said they will be “ruthless” in their drive to “end the GOP permanently”.
Pennsylvania is an important swing state in the upcoming election. In 2016, Trump won the state by a mere 0.72%. As a consequence, even relatively small amounts of voter fraud throughout the state could tip the state back over to the Democrats. Without Pennsylvania’s 20 electoral votes, the President would have to multiple less populated states, such as Arizona, Michigan, Minnesota or Wisconsin. Polling averages currently show a dead heat in Pennsylvania, with Trump tied or with a slight lead in the two more recent polls.
