Thousands of voters in Butler County, Pennsylvania, said have they never received their ballots.
Nearly 40,000 registered voters in the county requested mail-in ballots, but only about 24 percent of them were returned to the county so far, authorities said.
“At first we thought that maybe it just was a delay in the postal system” due to the high number of requests, Leslie Osche, chair of the Butler County commissioners, was quoted by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette as saying. “And that could still be the case. But, nonetheless, when we realized that, we changed our strategy and now have begun to tell folks that if they haven’t received a ballot, they still have multiple options.”
“Our main focus—because it’s too late now to worry about this—we need to make sure we get these people their ballots,” Osche added.
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USPS HAS NO IDEA WHERE THEY ARE
A U.S. Postal Service (USPS) spokesperson told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that the agency is “unaware of any significant delays or issues and is in regular contact with the Board of Election as we work to locate and deliver ballots as they are presented to us.” As of Tuesday, voters in Pennsylvania cannot apply for a mail-in or absentee ballot.
A local county official, Aaron Sheasley, told CNN Friday that the county has received more than 10,000 phone calls about information related to the ballots that were requested but not received.
“Somewhere between the post office and the Pittsburgh sorting facility, something happened,” Sheasley told the network. “We don’t know what.” He added: “We haven’t given out any numbers” about the number of missing ballots “because we simply don’t know.”
Speaking to CNN, Chuck Bugar, president of the American Postal Workers Union Pittsburgh chapter, said no record suggests the missing ballots in Butler County made it to a Postal Service facility.
“There’s no pile of ballots that have been taken from the Butler County election committee that are sitting around.” Bugar added, “There’s no record or indication that they entered the mail stream. There’s paperwork that goes along with it.”
WHERE ARE THE BLANK BALLOTS
They were sent out, and no one knows where they are. Isn’t this voter suppression?
Butler County voted for President Donald Trump over Democrat rival Hillary Clinton in 2016, about 66 percent to 29 percent. The county is located north of Pittsburgh and has approximately 150,000 registered voters.
The county told the Post-Gazette that voters could come to the Bureau of Elections and vote in person, provide them with identification, and officials will then give them a new mail-in ballot that a voter can return immediately. The original ballot that was mailed will be voided.
They also said that voters could vote at a local polling place in the county. Other alternatives are also provided.
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