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You are here: Home / Politics / America / Debunking the US Attorney From the Middle District of Pennsylvania’s Disinformation Campaign

Debunking the US Attorney From the Middle District of Pennsylvania’s Disinformation Campaign

by Adam L Silverman|  September 25, 20203:10 pm| 73 Comments

This post is in: America, Domestic Politics, Election 2016, Election 2020, Open Threads, Right to Vote, Silverman on Security, Voting Rights

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Yesterday conservative news, social, and digital media, as well as the President’s campaign went into freakout mode because the US Attorney (USAO) for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, David Freed, issued a statement that nine absentee ballots submitted by members of the US military voting for the President had been first lost and discarded and then discovered by election officials in Luzerne County, PA. It didn’t take long for that statement to be withdrawn; the actually pulled it off of the DOJ website. Then a revised statement was issued and finally a final revised statement was posted (emphasis mine).

Department of Justice
U.S. Attorney’s Office
Middle District of Pennsylvania

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                Thursday, September 24, 2020

Letter to Luzerne County Bureau of Elections

Shelby Watchilla, Director of Elections of Luzerne County Bureau of Elections

Dear Ms. Watchilla:

On Monday, September 21, 2020, at the request of Luzerne County District Attorney Stefanie Salavantis, the Office of the United States Attorney along with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Scranton Resident Agency, began an inquiry into reports of potential issues with a small number of mail-in ballots at the Luzerne County Board of Elections.

Since Monday, FBI personnel have conducted numerous interviews and recovered and reviewed certain physical evidence.  While at this point the inquiry remains active, based on the limited amount of time before the general election and the vital public importance of these issues, I will detail the investigators’ initial findings.

The FBI has recovered a number of documents relating to military ballots that had been improperly opened by your elections staff, and had the ballots removed and discarded, or removed and placed separately from the envelope containing confidential voter information and attestation.  Specifically, a total of nine (9) military ballots were discovered to have been discarded.  Seven (7) of those ballots when discovered by investigators were outside of any envelope.  Those ballots were all cast for presidential candidate Donald Trump.  One (1) of those seven (7) ballots was able to be identified to an envelope that was recovered, and thereby potentially tied to a specific voter. Two (2) military ballots that had been discarded were previously recovered by elections staff, reinserted into what appeared to be their appropriate envelopes, and then resealed.  Therefore, the votes cast on those two (2) ballots are unknown.  Thus, is appears that three (3) of the nine (9) recovered ballots can be potentially attributed to specific voters.  Six (6) of the ballots were simply removed and discarded, and cannot be attributed to a specific voter at this time.

In addition to the military ballots and envelopes that were discarded and recovered as detailed above, investigators recovered four (4) apparently official, bar-coded, absentee ballot envelopes that were empty. Two (2) of those envelopes had the completed attestations and signatures on the reverse side.  One (1) envelope with a handwritten return address was blank on the reverse side.  The fourth empty envelope contains basic location information and the words “affirmation enclosed” on the reverse side.  The majority of the recovered materials were found in an outside dumpster.

As you know, the appropriate method for processing received military ballots is to securely store the ballot, unopened, until such time as ballot pre-canvassing can begin, which is in no event earlier than 7:00 a.m. on Election Day.  Opening a military or overseas ballot, or an absentee or mail-in ballot for that matter, violates the controlling statutes and is contrary to Pennsylvania Department of State guidance.  The preliminary findings of this inquiry are troubling and the Luzerne County Bureau of Elections must comply with all applicable state and federal election laws and guidance to ensure that all votes—regardless of party—are counted to ensure an accurate election count.   Even though your staff has made some attempts to reconstitute certain of the improperly opened ballots, there is no guarantee that any of these votes will be counted in the general election.  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.

While the assigned investigators are continuing their work including reviewing additional discarded materials, it is imperative that the issues identified be corrected.  District Attorney Salavantis and I would be happy to meet with you at a mutually convenient time to discuss this matter. Please be assured that the investigators will carefully preserve all documents collected in connection with this investigation.  Our goal, that I am sure you share, is to ensure that every properly cast ballot is counted.

Sincerely,

DAVID J. FREED

UNITED STATES ATTORNEY

 

cc:       David Pedri, Luzerne County Manager

Tim McGinley, Luzerne County Council Chair

Stefanie Salavantis, Luzerne County District Attorney

This wasn’t some sort of criminal conspiracy, but human error. Specifically good faith human error caused by the Luzerne County officials wanting to ensure that these members of the military did actually get absentee ballots during the primary. That’s right, these aren’t general election ballots, they were for the primary. That doesn’t make it right, but it means that no one has stolen nine votes from the President’s tally in Pennsylvania for the general election. Frankly, that human error was created because of the confusion that Pennsylvania Republican officials, members of the President’s campaign, and the campaign and RNC attorneys, and the GOP majority on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court have created by constantly taking every good faith attempt to ensure a safe and fair election during the pandemic to court.

Here’s what the Pennsylvania election website says about these Special Write-In Absentee ballots:

Debunking the US Attorney From the Middle District of Pennsylvania's Disinformation Campaign Debunking the US Attorney From the Middle District of Pennsylvania's Disinformation Campaign 1

What actually happened, which is nothing really out of the ordinary expect some Luzerne County election officials opened envelopes as it was unclear what was in them because they weren’t sent back in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court mandated security envelopes. This led the county officials to think they were absentee ballot requests, not the Special Write-In Absentee Ballots that Pennsylvania sends to military voters before they finish printing the actual primary and general election absentee ballots.

Yup. From the latest DOJ statement, it seems like:

9 military voters sent write-in absentee ballots to Luzerne.

Because these letters weren't in SC-mandated privacy envelopes, Luzerne officials thought they were *requests* for absentee ballots. They opened them, spoiling them. https://t.co/WsAJw9gBg1

— Tim Alberta (@TimAlberta) September 25, 2020

8 hours later, the Trump spokesman's instigating tweet—"Democrats are trying to steal the election"—is still posted, with 67,000 retweets/likes and counting.

This sort of disinformation is going to get innocent people hurt. pic.twitter.com/xGOb8WICHT

— Tim Alberta (@TimAlberta) September 25, 2020

The whole thing is AG Barr’s USAO in Harrisburg trying to make something out of nothing because AG Barr knows that the initial reporting is all that matters, not the corrections. By now everyone who watches Fox News, listens to right wing talk radio, follows the President, his campaign spokespeople, and his other surrogates in social media, and get their news from conservative news and digital news sites, as well as from closed information silos on Facebook, believe that Pennsylvania election officials are trying to steal the election from the President. And this is part of the Democratic plot to use mail in ballots to steal the election. None of that is true, it was just a good faith error caused by confusing requirements and instructions imposed by multiple Pennsylvania state authorities.

That’s the play with this sort of thing. It is to create misinformation, disinformation, and agitprop and then get it pushed to people like those in the video below, people who only get their news from sources that are not reliable because they’ve already been indoctrinated to the belief that these unreliable sources are the only reliable ones, who will then further disseminate the misinformation, disinformation, and agitprop. Having a US Attorney push the misinformation and agitprop just makes it that much better because the intended audience for this stuff already believe that AG Barr, on orders from the President, is working behind the scenes with only trusted members of the Department of Justice to root out the illegal and un-American activities of Vice President Biden, his campaign, his supporters, and Democrats through things like USAO Durham’s re-review of AG Barr’s previously ordered re-review of what the DOJ and FBI and the US Intelligence Community did in 2016 in investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election. Russian interference, part of a war that Russia began against the US no later than 2014, that is still ongoing!

Open thread!

Update at 5:15 PM EDT

Based on reviewing the most recent reporting it is very unclear if these were primary ballots or general election ballots. So I have made some revisions to the original post to strike through the references to these being primary ballots.

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Reader Interactions

73Comments

  1. 1.

    debbie

    September 25, 2020 at 3:19 pm

    It wouldn’t surprise me if Barr had set this whole thing up somehow, like how Bush Jr.’s campaign tried to make it look like Gore’s staff had stolen their debate book.

  2. 2.

    Cheryl Rofer

    September 25, 2020 at 3:22 pm

    I agree that it will make an impression on the low-information voters who hear about it. (The definition of low-information voter suggests that many will not hear.) It’s a few drops in what Barr intends to be a downpour as we move toward the election.

    But so badly done! Oh my, I would never hire these guys as amorous rats!

    On the one hand, this is just pure politicization of the DOJ. On the other, it’s such an embarrassment for Barr. The thing fell apart in a few hours. https://t.co/m0YGTNt5Ny

    — Sam Stein (@samstein) September 25, 2020

    If they keep going this way, most people will be laughing at the gang that couldn’t get their disinformation trending, except in the wrong way.

  3. 3.

    Adam L Silverman

    September 25, 2020 at 3:23 pm

    @debbie: No, apparently this was an error made by a temp worker hired by Luzerne County election officials for the primary who made an honest mistake. What I can’t figure out is how this wound up with the DOJ in Harrisburg.

  4. 4.

    karensky

    September 25, 2020 at 3:24 pm

    Adam, many thanks from a PA Dem.  This mess has been bungled by the media for days and has everyone in PA that I know freaked out.  Now they can calm down while being vigilant. Luzerne County is a political snake pit.

    i

  5. 5.

    MJS

    September 25, 2020 at 3:26 pm

    This doesn’t even rise to the level of “ham handed”. Noticeably absent from Freed’s letter is any reference to prosecuting those responsible for what every right wing outlet will be calling “fraud”. Which then begs the question – if it’s “fraud”, why isn’t it being prosecuted? Are Barr and Freed also now part of the “deep state”?

    When Trump inevitably brings this issue up in the debates, Joe should tell him that whatever number of votes Trump gets in November in PA, he can add 9, no questions asked.

  6. 6.

    Damien

    September 25, 2020 at 3:26 pm

    Adam, I have a question: while I wait for your two book recommendations to arrive that I was unable to get on Kindle, I was wondering if you have any books or articles you can recommend about stochastic terrorism and how it differs from insurgency?  Also, anything you can suggest on how to protect oneself in an urban protest setting would be great.  I have your previous post about security and freedom of assembly, but I would very much like to do a deeper dive.

    The Airmen and the Headhunters, People’s War People’s Army and the Counterinsurgency Manual were all fascinating, by the way, and I really appreciate your suggestions.

  7. 7.

    Another Scott

    September 25, 2020 at 3:28 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: They continue to be desperate to find any evidence of “voter fraud” and “cheating with absentee ballots” and all the rest.  They’ll scour the whole nation to find anything to show that Donnie isn’t a liar about this stuff.

    ObOpenThread?

    ScienceMag:

    Kitty see, kitty do: cat imitates human, in first scientific demonstration of behavior

    By David Grimm Sep. 25, 2020 , 10:50 AM

    Ebisu may be the world’s first literal copycat. Researchers have shown the Japanese feline can imitate the actions of her owner under controlled scientific conditions. The ability has only been seen in a handful of creatures, and the find could suggest imitation arose relatively early in mammal evolution.

    “It’s really exciting,” says Kristyn Vitale, a cat cognition researcher and animal behaviorist at Unity College. “People think of cats as solitary and antisocial,” she says. “But this study reinforces the idea that they’re watching us and learning from us.”

    […]

    Well, duh. ;-)

    Neato.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  8. 8.

    Adam L Silverman

    September 25, 2020 at 3:29 pm

    @karensky: As a former one, you’re welcome.

  9. 9.

    debbie

    September 25, 2020 at 3:31 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Pretty odd, though, that they wouldn’t be in the right envelopes. I mean, if a special envelope is required, wouldn’t people get ballots and envelopes together at the same time? This ain’t kosher.

  10. 10.

    Adam L Silverman

    September 25, 2020 at 3:32 pm

    @MJS: There’s nothing to prosecute them for. At best this might be prosecutable under Pennsylvania state law. Which is why I’m really interested in why the DOJ is really involved in this.

  11. 11.

    Adam L Silverman

    September 25, 2020 at 3:35 pm

    @Damien: This is about 800 pages, should keep you occupied:

    https://www.marines.mil/Portals/1/Publications/FMFRP%2012-15%20%20Small%20Wars%20Manual.pdf

    Now to your question regarding an article on stochastic terrorism. The answer is not as far as I know, but I don’t stay on top of the literature like I did when I was an academic because it really isn’t necessary for the work I do. I’ve honestly never seen the term used except as an operational term of art. Let me poke around a bit.

  12. 12.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    September 25, 2020 at 3:36 pm

    Well another October Surprise we all saw coming because Trump telegraphed it.

  13. 13.

    Adam L Silverman

    September 25, 2020 at 3:37 pm

    @debbie: People forget the special secrecy envelopes all the time. It’s a huge issue in PA. Because people don’t actually read the instructions. I’ve also seen expats tweeting that a number of US embassies and consulates, because of security, will no longer accept them sealed for free return back to the US included with diplomatic mail to ensure delivery because of security requirements. So these voters have to either bring everything to the embassy or consulate and sign, date, put the ballots in the envelopes, seal them, date and sign the envelopes, etc in front of a consular official or send their ballots through air mail. So it might have been something like this.

  14. 14.

    debbie

    September 25, 2020 at 3:37 pm

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    “Sir! Please stop trying to help!”

  15. 15.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    September 25, 2020 at 3:40 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Which is why I’m really interested in why the DOJ is really involved in this.

    The more I read about this, that was the first question that came to mind.

  16. 16.

    MJS

    September 25, 2020 at 3:41 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Oh, I know there’s nothing to prosecute them for, I was just pointing out that if this is going to be Trump’s and the right wing’s evidence of “fraud”, since “fraud” is a crime to be prosecuted, there’s a gigantic hole in this story.

  17. 17.

    debbie

    September 25, 2020 at 3:42 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Well, there’s no argument against that! ??‍♀️

    Reading your addition, I’m surprised no one’s complained about it being made harder for military to participate in elections. That certainly isn’t the public’s perception.

  18. 18.

    Mallard Filmore

    September 25, 2020 at 3:44 pm

    @debbie:

     

    “Sir! Please stop trying to help!”

    This would be the first time that a Trump story with “He said Sir, with tears in his eyes …” is true.

  19. 19.

    NotMax

    September 25, 2020 at 3:45 pm

    As with any other office of any size tasked with receiving, handling and processing mounds of data, stuff happens along the line which in retrospect should have better been caught at the time. Aberrations, not patterns. People, no matter how dedicated, are not perfect.

    Attributing it to inherent conspiracy is a shopping trip at Straitjackets R Us.

  20. 20.

    BruceFromOhio

    September 25, 2020 at 3:47 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    Set up. Wrap in a military aspect, and its a Fox News Fornication Hour: ELECTION FRAUD DemocRATS HATE OUR MILITARY SPECIAL BULLETIN for every winger in existence. And it is irrelevant what comes to light afterwards.

  21. 21.

    LongHairedWeirdo

    September 25, 2020 at 3:49 pm

    Having a US Attorney push the misinformation and agitprop just makes it that much better because the intended audience for this stuff already believe that AG Barr, on orders from the President, is working behind the scenes with only trusted members of the Department of Justice to root out the illegal and un-American activities of Vice President Biden, his campaign, his supporters, and Democrats through things like USAO Durham’s re-review of AG Barr’s previously ordered re-review of what the DOJ and FBI and the US Intelligence Community did in 2016 in investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election. Russian interference, part of a war that Russia began against the US no later than 2014, that is still ongoing!

    Just a random thought. Imagine if a high ranking campaign/administration official – oh, say, Junior – were to “jokingly” refer to Biden as a pedophile, and the horror was *immediate*. Let’s say Lindsey Frickin’ Graham (he doesn’t deserve stronger than Frickin’ (not even the final G), because, face it, it’s not that he looks like the  worlds whiniest wimp, it’s that he *IS*; the word “lickspittle”, however gross it sounds to me (on a day I’ve got mild nausea) should have a picture of him next to the definition) would demand that Junior be removed from *any* office of trust or profit, AND from both the campaign and administration, because such vile, despicable, baseless, slander has no part in America.

    HOW MUCH HARDER WOULD IT BE FOR RUSSIA TO STIR UP SHIT?

    How much more safe would America be if even the most pusillanimous toady were willing to say “no baseless accusations of pedophilia, that’s completely unamerican!”?

    That bar is so fucking low you could trip over it while digging a grave.

    We could go further, but just that much – you don’t bring up bullshit accusations grounded only in hate and hoped-for advantage – would make America much safer from such things.

    I know there are people, who might read this, who might know more about such things, but… is that the sort of thing that might be briefed to important people? Does the government recognize that “wow, this wouldn’t work nearly as well, if it was so glaringly different from homegrown hate”?

    Are rightwingers in important government positions being told “the acceptability of such vile hatred damages this nation, by making it more vulnerable to precisely this sort of attack” as part of their briefings? Or is that not the sort of thing that’s considered as actionable information?

    Are people trying to protect this nation informing smug governmental rightwingers about this, or are we kind-of hoping that maybe Fox News will finally twig to this, to tell them?

    (That’s mostly a rhetorical question – but I realized I *am* curious. I could see (counter-)intel folks feeling that’s a bit more opinion than information, and there’s a delicate balance between providing information and editorializing it. It *also* seems like the kind of thing that should be mentioned – “while QAnon isn’t laughed out of the public square, we’re more vulnerable.”)

  22. 22.

    Adam L Silverman

    September 25, 2020 at 3:53 pm

    @debbie: Plenty of people have. All of them Democrats.

  23. 23.

    Another Scott

    September 25, 2020 at 3:53 pm

    Congratulations Adam and Betty! Florida won!!11

    JUST IN: FL Gov says all restaurants and bars can fully open– 100% capacity– with no limitations from the state.

    — Ana Cabrera (@AnaCabrera) September 25, 2020

    It’s Over!! Florida Won!!11ONE.

    :-/

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  24. 24.

    Adam L Silverman

    September 25, 2020 at 3:56 pm

    @LongHairedWeirdo:

    Just a random thought. Imagine if a high ranking campaign/administration official – oh, say, Junior – were to “jokingly” refer to Biden as a pedophile

    Don Jr has already done this and not jokingly. He used some of the  doctored footage of Biden with his grandkids at Beau’s funeral to do so.

  25. 25.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    September 25, 2020 at 4:02 pm

    @Another Scott: Woo Hoo, party time in Floriduh!

  26. 26.

    lowtechcyclist

    September 25, 2020 at 4:02 pm

    Adam, I’m trying to parse this out.  Where does it say that these were primary election ballots?  Maybe I’m just not reading it right, but I can’t find that.

  27. 27.

    Adam L Silverman

    September 25, 2020 at 4:03 pm

    @Another Scott: Jacksonville Beach called, their idiot is missing.

    Florida still has roughly triple the Covid-19 cases it had back in June. https://t.co/wqKLf6Xbrr

    — German Lopez (@germanrlopez) September 25, 2020

  28. 28.

    Kim Walker

    September 25, 2020 at 4:04 pm

    @Another Scott: My cat kisses. If I make “kisses” in the air, she touches her nose to my lips and then licks her lips. She does other weird things like, “watches TV” with us at 9:00 sharp, demands the tub water be turned on so she can stand in front of it (not drinking), when we brush our teeth, read in bed (she faces the book between my elbows when I say “do you to read a story”, will get up on her hind legs when she wants to be picked up or when I ask her if she wants “up”. She is a good girl.

  29. 29.

    Adam L Silverman

    September 25, 2020 at 4:04 pm

    @lowtechcyclist: From the revised DOJ statement:

    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.

  30. 30.

    lowtechcyclist

    September 25, 2020 at 4:05 pm

    @Another Scott: Shoot, here in comparatively sane Maryland, they can open at 75% capacity now.  And there’s still going to be plenty of virus in the air in a 75% full restaurant.

    No way you’ll find me at an indoor eating or drinking establishment until well into 2021 at the earliest.

  31. 31.

    lowtechcyclist

    September 25, 2020 at 4:07 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: But that just says it was a problem then, and they didn’t fix it, so it’s still happening now.

  32. 32.

    A Ghost to Most

    September 25, 2020 at 4:08 pm

    “Damn the accuracy! It’s the noise we want!”

    Facts don’t matter to fascists.

  33. 33.

    Adam L Silverman

    September 25, 2020 at 4:08 pm

    @lowtechcyclist: I have no idea.

  34. 34.

    LongHairedWeirdo

    September 25, 2020 at 4:09 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Yes, I was aware of that; I was trying to be cute, but I probably shouldn’t have been. We are, after all, in a situation where it’s really hard to parody hate, because anything you think is so over-the-top it’s parody, it turns out to have sincere adherents.

  35. 35.

    NotMax

    September 25, 2020 at 4:12 pm

    @BillinGlendaleCA

    “Unadvertised special! 60% off on the six month old salad bar!”

    //

  36. 36.

    Eljai

    September 25, 2020 at 4:13 pm

    @Another Scott: There was a time when I would not have believed that a governor would willingly and knowingly endanger his constituents.  Seems, I dunno, counterintuitive.

  37. 37.

    Damien

    September 25, 2020 at 4:14 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Deeply appreciated.  I never thought I’d feel like understanding this stuff would feel relevant to my day to day life, but oh how times have changed.

    Have you ever read anything about the Irish Civil War?  I read several books about Michael Collins and his tactics, which I thought were really interesting, both his battlefield/intel work and his transition to a thoughtful politician.

    I just downloaded the manual, but I read the entire Harry Potter series in about 4 days, so I may be back for more sooner than you think :D

    Thanks again for sharing your knowledge with us!

  38. 38.

    Adam L Silverman

    September 25, 2020 at 4:17 pm

    @Damien: I started studying low intensity warfare in Scotland between 92 and 95 while the Troubles were still ongoing. So I’ve read a few things.

  39. 39.

    MisterForkbeard

    September 25, 2020 at 4:18 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: I think DeSantis is trying to time this so that the economy picks up before the election but the deaths that result from this idiocy are still relatively low.

    With a 3-4 period before it tends to kill you and only 5.5 weeks in the election, you’re looking at a relatively tiny amount of deaths before the election – maybe people only infected in the next 10 days or so. So he’s trying to push economic benefits and a sense of normality just before the election, and then after people vote he doesn’t care if a bunch of them die.

    Cynical fuck.

  40. 40.

    Adam L Silverman

    September 25, 2020 at 4:21 pm

    @MisterForkbeard: It’s possible. But remember, everything in Florida is funded by taxes other than an income tax. So he may be looking at the budget and freaking out that the revenue is through the floor.

  41. 41.

    MisterForkbeard

    September 25, 2020 at 4:29 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Also a good point.

    Can’t go asking for Federal handouts without making Trump look bad, so…

  42. 42.

    cwmoss

    September 25, 2020 at 4:30 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Here in the Beaver State, there’s an optional “ballot secrecy sleeve” the voters can slip their ballot into , if they want to,  before putting it in the mailing envelope. It used to be a “ballot secrecy envelope” but it’s simpler now, and I guess we’re less paranoid than in some scaredy-cat jurisdictions. The mailing envelope is signed on the outside and the signature compared with the voter’s registration before the envelope is opened and the ballot removed. We’ve been using mail-only elections since 2000, with the vote-by-mail concept rolling out for lower-level elections beginning in 1981.

  43. 43.

    Torrey

    September 25, 2020 at 4:32 pm

    Tim Alberta, Politico reporter, says the director of elections, Shelby Watchilla, has no current political affiliation but ran for county seat as a Republican. He has the list.

  44. 44.

    Chief Oshkosh

    September 25, 2020 at 4:34 pm

    Obviously aimed at low information voters. Not that it’s possible to reach them, but a simple message for follow up explanation is:

    It was only 9 ballots out of millions.

    It was in the Republican primary, so of course all of the votes were for Trump.

    The temp worker who made the mistake got confused because of the weird envelope and form rules created by PA Republicans.

    Then, if they are real low-info voters, end with: If the Republicans did a better job of running their primaries, this wouldn’t have happened. It’s completely a non sequitur, but what do they know?

  45. 45.

    Faithful Lurker

    September 25, 2020 at 4:39 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Is DiSantis from Jax Beach? That explains a lot.  I spent a good part of my misspent life in Jax.,Atlantic Beach and Ponte Vedra Beach. I can believe he evolved from that region.

     

    @Adam L Silverman:

  46. 46.

    Adam L Silverman

    September 25, 2020 at 4:43 pm

    @cwmoss: Florida uses the sleeves too. They’re required. Ballot is a bubble sheet. Fill in the ovals with black ink voting only for one candidate or yes or no for each amendment, put it in the secrecy sleeve, put the sleeve in the return envelope, sign and date the envelope, then either mail it back or drop it off.

  47. 47.

    Adam L Silverman

    September 25, 2020 at 4:45 pm

    @Torrey: I don’t know the rules in PA, but it may be that supervisor of elections is an officially non-partisan position, so Watchilla had to run without party affiliations.

  48. 48.

    Adam L Silverman

    September 25, 2020 at 4:45 pm

    @Faithful Lurker: I know he’s from Jax, based on his behavior I figured it had to be Jax Beach.

  49. 49.

    Dahlia

    September 25, 2020 at 4:46 pm

    @Eljai: Which constituents are most at risk for illness and death because of this policy?  Or, rather, which constituents does De Santis think are most at risk?

  50. 50.

    NotMax

    September 25, 2020 at 4:57 pm

    @Dahlia

    Risk is not a factor under consideration. Appeasing campaign donors is.

  51. 51.

    Wolvesvalley

    September 25, 2020 at 4:57 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Adam, could you please clarify this–

    a temp worker . . . hired by Luzerne County election officials for the primary

    Were these ballots for the PRIMARY election in June? An election that’s over and done with? Not the general election?

  52. 52.

    glory b

    September 25, 2020 at 5:03 pm

    @debbie: In all caps for the people in the back: PEOPLE DO NOT FOLLOW DIRECTIONS!!

    I conduct hearings which are now done by telephone. My office sends hearing notices that tell them they are not to attend in person, how to obtain subpoenas, numbers to call, email and fax numbers for the office, etc., etc, Clearly, you’d be surprised at how many people don’t bother to read it.

    A clerk I worked with used to say “Reading Is Fundamental (from an old Saturday morning cartoon public info spot)” becuase sooooooo many people go to the wrong office, at the wrong time, on the wrong day, without the things they are supposed to bring, it goes on and on.

    so no, I’m not surprised that people don’t use the envelope. Also, the Democratic governor argued in court that it be required to let people know their ballots were mailed in incorrectly in order to give them a chance to cure, the republicans successfully argued against this.

    Also, ballots mailed without the security envelope were to be discarded. Isn’t that what should have happened anyway?

  53. 53.

    glory b

    September 25, 2020 at 5:06 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: This is correct, but I understand he or she ran for office some years ago as a repub.

    Then again, there are, I believe, a vanishingly small number of Dems in Luzerne County. Doubt it’s enough to get a conspiracy together. Luzerne is heartland Pennsyltucky, no Dems are winning there.

  54. 54.

    Adam L Silverman

    September 25, 2020 at 5:08 pm

    @Wolvesvalley: I’ve been reviewing the most recent reporting and it is very unclear. So I’m going to do a revision to the post up top indicating that. I honestly am not sure.

  55. 55.

    Jon Marcus

    September 25, 2020 at 5:15 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Adam, I think you might be misreading this particular point. My interpretation of that sentence is that this had been a problem in the primary and it remained an unaddressed problem in the general.

    That quibble aside, thanks for shedding some light on this. I knew it was bullshit, but didn’t realize quite how ugly.

  56. 56.

    Wolvesvalley

    September 25, 2020 at 5:18 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Thanks! I have been wondering how the county could have received any mail-in ballots for the general election. I seem to recall that military ballots are sent out 45 days before an election. If that’s true, the military ballots for the November 3 election would have gone out last Friday, September 18. I do not see how any ballots could have been delivered AND RETURNED between Friday, September 18, and Monday, September 21, when these 9 ballots were discovered.

  57. 57.

    VeniceRiley

    September 25, 2020 at 5:19 pm

    @MisterForkbeard: I think it’s more likely Adam is correct. It’s about donors and/or the budget. Because deaths aren’t the only consideration in re the election. Especially with Republicans, because Trump has told them to vote in person on 11/3. A LOT of them will be sick on 11/3. In or out of the Hospital.  Too sick to go vote.

     

    @Adam L Silverman: I’d really like to know WTF is up at DOJ.  Whatever it is, they’re going to be backing up the GOP lawyers on 11/4, I think. Shock and Awe landslide is needed.

  58. 58.

    Chaz

    September 25, 2020 at 5:29 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    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.

    I admit I am also having trouble parsing this. To me, the statement says this was a known problem in the primary, and the current mistake shows it is *still* a problem for the general.

    There is also this:

    Even though your staff has made some attempts to reconstitute certain of the improperly opened ballots, there is no guarantee that any of these votes will be counted in the general election.

    I don’t get what this means if these are primary ballots and not general ballots.

  59. 59.

    Another Scott

    September 25, 2020 at 5:30 pm

    @Wolvesvalley: Politico says everything happened in September.

    https://www.politico.com/news/2020/09/25/pennsylvania-ballots-trump-421908

    The picture with the story shows a primary election ballot dated June 2.  The GOP primary was the same day.

    The reporting on this is very unclear.  I can’t find any information that Luzern County even has prepared their general election ballots yet, so presumably this is all about how those 9 ballots were treated for the June primary.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  60. 60.

    WaterGirl

    September 25, 2020 at 5:48 pm

    @glory b:

    In all caps for the people in the back: PEOPLE DO NOT FOLLOW DIRECTIONS!!

    If there was ever a time for using flashing red, bolded text, this would indeed be it.

    And it’s not just not following directions.  A lot of people do not read the directions in front of them.

  61. 61.

    lowtechcyclist

    September 25, 2020 at 5:50 pm

    @Chaz: Adam updated his post at 5:15pm to reflect the lack of clarity in the reporting.

    Adam, thanks for the update.

  62. 62.

    Chaz

    September 25, 2020 at 5:56 pm

    @lowtechcyclist: Thanks, looks like he was correcting at the same time I was writing and googling for more info.  Missed it by that much.

  63. 63.

    lowtechcyclist

    September 25, 2020 at 6:00 pm

    @WaterGirl: And then sometimes even the directions aren’t clear. I read earlier today (here or elsewhere, I’m not sure) that the instructions accompanying Virginia’s mail-in ballot say to use blue or black ink, but the ballot itself says to use black ink.  And apparently it had better be black ink.

    And then back in the Great 2000 Fuckup, the Duval County, FL ballot instructions said to vote on every page.  The problem was that Duval County dealt with the large number of 3rd party/independent Presidential candidates by spreading the Presidential candidates over two pages.  So an unknown number of ballots were spoiled by persons voting for one Presidential candidate on each of the two pages.

    (That might have become as infamous as the Palm Beach County butterfly ballot, if Duval hadn’t destroyed the ballots before it could be determined how many votes for Bush or Gore on the first page were spoiled by votes on the second page.)

  64. 64.

    lowtechcyclist

    September 25, 2020 at 6:02 pm

    @Chaz: Happens to all of us!

  65. 65.

    WaterGirl

    September 25, 2020 at 6:09 pm

    @lowtechcyclist: You have to idiot-proof everything. I don’t mean that as an insult.

    I got a survey from UPS asking me to evaluate 2 or 3 versions of the new slip they are leaving if you are not home to receive a package.

    The first version was god-awful, even with careful reading I couldn’t figure out what the fuck I was supposed to do if they left the slip.

    There might have been a second one, which was better.

    But the third one was very clear.

    You would think if UPS could get feedback from real humans about their “you have a package” slip, states could do the same.

    Plus, they could make the mail-in voting very simple.

    It’s crazy.  Some of the bad design is surely deliberate, and some is likely carelessness or indifference.

  66. 66.

    Mallard Filmore

    September 25, 2020 at 6:33 pm

    Hi Adam, if you are still monitoring this thread, DailyKos has a posting:

    https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/9/25/1980735/-BARR-AND-TRUMP-CAMPAIGN-FAKED-THE-9-BALLOT-FRAUD-STORY

    Full story here:

    https://www.rawstory.com/2020/09/the-9-discarded-ballots-were-tossed-because-republicans-won-their-lawsuit-requiring-them-to-not-be-counted-report/

  67. 67.

    A Ghost to Most

    September 25, 2020 at 6:44 pm

    So according to David Badash, the ballots were discarded because they were “naked ballots”,which the pricks demanded be discarded.

    We are blessed in our enemies.

  68. 68.

    billcinsd

    September 25, 2020 at 6:59 pm

    How exactly is the state supposed to correct people sending in their ballots incorrectly, if the SCOTPA won’t let them?

  69. 69.

    J R in WV

    September 25, 2020 at 7:03 pm

    @WaterGirl: 

    Some of the bad design is surely deliberate, and some is likely carelessness or indifference.

    I suspect most all bad design of instructions, forms, procedures and processes is due to total stupid incompetence on the part of middle managers who get to sign off on all these things.

    They get a good first draft, then insist on changes to that first draft, which all cause it to be less obvious what should be done. Oops! But manager does what managers do ~!!~

  70. 70.

    Mary

    September 25, 2020 at 8:25 pm

    @debbie:  Lots of people don’t read directions anymore.  They probably threw away the “special envelope”….

  71. 71.

    Betty

    September 25, 2020 at 8:38 pm

    As a PA overseas voter, my guess is that were general election ballots. If you want to talk about errors, the list of nominees I received listed Bernie Sanders as the D nominee. They subsequently sent an email correcting that. Did Bernie get any votes? I wonder.

  72. 72.

    Frank Iannuzzi

    September 26, 2020 at 8:58 am

    The PA Supreme Court has a Democratic majority, not a Republican one. They aren’t trying to disenfranchise anyone and certainly aren’t helping the Republicans steal the election. The changes made to our election law that brought about this stupid two envelope system also allowed early no-excuse absentee, early in-person (which wasnt stood up for the primaties), eliminated the party slate vote, and was overall a mixed bag. The confusion and problems are on the Republican General Assembly, which is naturally more interested in making things worse than fixing any problems (especially relaxing timing requirements).

  73. 73.

    WaterGirl

    September 26, 2020 at 10:28 am

    @Frank Iannuzzi: Thanks for that information!

    A person’s first comment or first comment with a new nym or email address has to be approved manually.  After that, comments go through automatically.

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