The Department of Justice announced that it has begun an investigation into the destruction of nine mail-in ballots found in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania.

In a statement, the DOJ announced that the nine ballots had been found “discarded.” Seven ballots that were unsealed were all cast for Donald Trump, and two others were sealed, and remain unopened.

The FBI is reportedly investigating the suspicious ballot disposal.

A DOJ statement is describing the destroyed ballots as military ballots. Rules and procedures exist for military service members to cast votes in their home states when they’re stationed at installations across the country and overseas.

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Since Monday, FBI personnel working together with the Pennsylvania State Police have conducted numerous interviews and recovered and reviewed certain physical evidence. Election officials in Luzerne County have been cooperative. At this point we can confirm that a small number of military ballots were discarded. Investigators have recovered nine ballots at this time. Some of those ballots can be attributed to specific voters and some cannot. All nine ballots were cast for presidential candidate Donald Trump.

Our inquiry remains ongoing and we expect later today to share our up to date findings with officials in Luzerne County. It is the vital duty of government to ensure that every properly cast vote is counted.

White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany brought up the concerning election interference in Thursday’s press conference, citing the incident as an example of why President Trump and many Americans are highly concerned about the novel use of national mail-in electioneering in 2020.

White House Press Secretary @KayleighMcEnany on mail-in ballots discarded in Pennsylvania, where 100% of them were cast for President @realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/TN8kA7mhha — Team Trump (Text VOTE to 88022) (@TeamTrump) September 24, 2020

Pennsylvania is arguably the most crucial and closely contested state in the 2020 election. The outcome of the entire contest could very conceivably be decided by a few votes in the state.