TRUMP SCREAMS ‘RIGGING’ DUE TO ‘DISCARDED’ BALLOTS IN PENNSYLVANIA

The news release from a US attorney in Pennsylvania was provocative: Nine mailed-in military ballots had been “discarded” by the local election office in a swing county of one of the most important presidential battleground states.

All of them were marked for President Donald Trump, it said. Then came another news release with key details changed — the presidential choice was unknown on two of the ballots because they had been resealed — but still little explanation of what had happened and whether investigators believed a criminal act had occurred, Christina A. Cassidy and Mark Scalforo reported for Associated Press (AP).

The Trump campaign seized the opportunity to slam election officials for the “mess,” ignoring the fact that the local government, Luzerne County, is controlled by Republicans. Conservative voices used the news release as rocket fuel to amplify the investigation on social media. Thursday’s kerfuffle and internet outrage by Trump trolls over a handful of ballots is likely a taste of what’s to come in the month left before the presidential election. By Friday, more details had emerged in the Pennsylvania case. Federal officials were considering whether a recently hired, temporary election worker may have mishandled the ballots. Aside from the unknowns about the investigation itself, questions persist over how the Justice Department handled the matter.

“If past is prologue, we will see more,” said Wendy Weiser, an elections expert and director of the democracy program at the Brennan Center for Justice. “We are in an unprecedented situation where a sitting president of the United States and a candidate for reelection is and has long been actively seeking to undermine the election and discredit it.”

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