The LuLac Edition #4,411, September 30th, 2020

  

WRITE ON WEDNESDAY

Our “Write On Wednesday” logo

The news that permeated the airwaves last week was the ballot controversy at the Luzerne County Bureau of Elections. People who work there are hard working and dedicated to the proposition that every vote is sacred. But a contractor there for a hot 2 days made a mistake. The officials duly reported it, noted it and thought an investigation would be undertaken in the usual manner. They did everything they were supposed to do.

But the investigation and its contents were immediately made public and its information were funneled up to one who had a stake in it, the President of the United States.

That was very odd procedure and Times Shamrock in its editorial Sunday called it out.   

 IN ODD MOVE, FEDS DISCLOSE INVESTIGATION

Your average journalist could retire early if she had a dollar for every time a federal investigator or prosecutor told her: “We don’t comment on ongoing investigations.”

But Thursday, U.S. Attorney David Freed issued a press release about the discovery that nine ballots mailed to the Luzerne County elections office had gone missing. (All were recovered.) In a remarkable coincidence, the release came two weeks after President Donald Trump’s campaign, which had sued against Pennsylvania’s vote-by-mail procedures, failed to meet a federal judge’s demand to produce proof of fraud. Just as coincidentally, President Donald Trump referred to the local case Thursday while continuing his fraudulent crusade against supposed ballot fraud.

Our editorials have often implored federal prosecutors to issue detailed reports on investigations of public interest. But prosecutors routinely either seek indictments or don’t, and move on without further explanation.

In this case, even though elections are county and state government functions, the federal prosecutor issued the press release. Republican Luzerne County District Attorney Stefanie Salavantis reportedly referred the matter to the Republican U.S. attorney without explaining why she couldn’t handle the matter or refer it to the state attorney general’s office, under the direction of Democrat Josh Shapiro, which would be the usual path.

Ballot irregularities should, of course, be investigated. But breaking standard protocol to announce details of an ongoing investigation is extraordinary.

“It’s wildly improper, and it’s truly unconscionable,” said Justin Levitt, a former Justice Department official and a law professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. He said that releasing details, which later had to be corrected, and identifying the candidate for whom the ballots were cast, is revealing.

“That is the tell, and it says this was not an act of law enforcement, this was a campaign act, and it should mean the end of the career of whoever approved the statement,” Levitt said.

Meanwhile, regional residents can sleep well knowing that there is so little crime afoot in the U.S. Middle District of Pennsylvania that federal prosecutors are looking for other things to do.