Fayette DA investigating four incidents of fraudulent mail-in ballots
Fayette County’s district attorney said his office will investigate four incidents of possible fraud associated with mail-in ballots.
In a press conference on Friday, District Attorney Rich Bower said he was first contacted by the county commissioners on Oct. 21 to go to the county’s election bureau.
While there, Bower and Chief County Detective John Marshall learned of social media reports that an individual received a mail-in ballot that was already filled out. Bower said his office was able to find the woman, a registered Democrat, in Brownsville and confirmed the ballot was already filled out before she received it.
“It was all filled out for every office from president down to congressional representative to state representative,” Bower said. “We took that into custody, put that into evidence and we are conducting an investigation into that.”
On Oct. 28, the election bureau reported a second ballot, sent to a registered Democrat in the Farmington area, was also filled out in its entirety.
“This is not just an isolated event,” said Bower, noting Brownsville and Farmington are about 40 miles apart.
He said the second ballot only had the race for the U.S. House of Representatives marked as “other” and all the other races were filled out; the remainder of the selection were were Democrat candidates only.
The entire Brownsville ballot was filled out for Democrat candidates.
Less than two hours before to Friday’s 1 p.m. press conference, Bower said two ballot envelopes from a married couple in the Connellsville area had arrived at the election bureau and had already been cut open upon delivery.
Bower said the secrecy envelope, which contains ballot selections, had been removed from the outer envelope. He said the couple verified they enclosed the secrecy envelopes in the outer envelope, leading authorities to believe the secrecy envelope was stolen.
That incident is also currently being investigated.
“As we all know, this is a very serious crime — to doctor ballots and even steal ballots,” Bower said.
He said it could rise to the level of a federal crime because the ballots were sent by mail.
“It doesn’t matter if it was a Republican or Democrat ballot filled out in such a manner, this is a crime,” he said.
Bower said he couldn’t go into details of the investigation, and while he acknowledged it may be difficult to find those responsible, he said investigators are not taking the incidents lightly.
He said one of the two voters who received a pre-filled ballot was given a new mail-in ballot, but the other voter said they will vote at the polls.
“This is something that shouldn’t be going on in this country, this county or this state,” Bower said. “It is now going on, it’s wrong, and we will do whatever we can to find out who is doing this.”
Bower said anyone receives any ballots that have been pre-filled, to call the district attorney’s office at 724-430-1245, and ask for Det. John Marshall.