No Wrongdoing, No Fraud Found By Bucks County Election Investigation

An investigation by Bucks County officials has determined there was no wrongdoing after an activist group came forward and alleged they found several ballots in the trash in Upper Bucks County.

A montage from controversial activist group Project Veritas and an information provided to a LevittownNow.com reporter by the organization alleged that eight to 10 invalidated ballots were discovered ripped up in a trash bin at a polling place. The footage appears to show several spoiled ballots – invalid ballots not to be counted – and at least some of the ballots appeared blank.

Bucks County Commissioner Bob Harvie, chairperson of the Board of Elections, told this news organization the county launched an investigation after the allegations came to light late last week following the election. The county involved the district attorney’s office, which has not filed any charges and only said they were aware of the matter.

Harvie said people that identified themselves as “citizen journalists” and made the claims to them only turned over one or two ballots and not the 8 to 10 they stated they had.

The county’s probe looked the ballots, how they ended up in the trash, and the voters they were assigned to.

The county determined the ballots were not trashed at a polling place on election day but at the Board of Elections satellite election office just outside of Quakertown. None of the ballots were counted and they were labeled spoiled so it was known they are not to be tallied.

Harvie said mail-in and absentee ballots could have been turned over to the Board of Elections to be invalidated if a resident needed a replacement or wished to do in-person voting instead.

Ballots turned in at the government services center before the election were to be marked spoiled and the barcode used to track mail-in and absentee ballots cut so it cannot be used before being disposed of. If the ballots were turned in at in-person polling places on election day, they were to marked be spoiled and placed in an envelope to be retained by the county for some time under state law, Harvie said.

Project Veritas focused on the retention of spoiled ballots and that the county may have violated the law.

After the investigation was completed, Harvie said the county did not violate the law and the election workers involved did follow proper procedures.

The commissioner stated no personal information that is not already public record was compromised.

The commissioner noted the county will be looking at ways to better secure trash at election offices.

On Sunday, Project Veritas spokesperson Neil McCabe said the group had a team in Bucks County that dug through trash bags to find the invalid ballots. He also said there was no evidence of fraud his team had found in the county.

After learning that the county completed an investigation and found no wrongdoing, McCabe said Project Veritas was pleased the county took the claim seriously.

There have been no claims of voter fraud in Bucks County, according to Harvie and other officials, including members of both major political parties who had observers watching the election.

In Bucks County, close to 390,000 votes were cast in the 2020 general election.

President Donald Trump and his campaign have claimed that there was widespread voter fraud and that’s the reason he had significantly less votes than former Vice President Joe Biden. The Trump campaign has not provided evidence of substantial voter fraud.

Conspiracy theorists have run with allegations of widespread voter fraud. The bulk of claims that have gone viral on social media have been debunked.

Although it makes no claims of voter fraud, many social media posts sharing the Project Veritas video alleged voter fraud or nefarious intent.

“It’s a shame that it’s going to cause confusion and feed conspiracy theories,” Harvie said of the video.

As of Monday evening, Project Veritas had not updated their video post to include new information on the incident.

The video gained hundreds of thousands of views and was featured on conservative website Town Hall and Gateway Pundit, a website known for publishing untrue information, hoaxes, and conspiracy theories, according to analytics tool CrowdTangle.

Activist James O’Keefe, who also leads a political advocacy group, has fronted Project Veritas, which is known for at times recording people without their knowledge and acts of deception.

O’Keefe pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges in 2010 after an incident at a senator’s office where he claims a team were investigating allegations of calls that were being ignored, according The Hill.

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