Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham called for a Justice Department investigation into voting irregularities after receiving a sworn affidavit from a Pennsylvania postal worker alleging that postal supervisory officials hatched a plan to backdate ballots mailed after the election.
The Trump campaign launched a series of lawsuits in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Nevada, and Georgia alleging instances of voter irregularities and misconduct.
The legal claims were filed despite major news networks projecting that former Vice President Joe Biden won enough Electoral College votes on Saturday to win the presidency.
Associate Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito on Friday ordered all county election boards in Pennsylvania to separate all late ballots from all other mail-in ballots.
This ruling came after the Pennsylvania Republican Party had requested of the U.S. Supreme Court to take up a case related to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court regarding the extension of counting mail-in ballots to three days after Election Day.
Graham received a sworn affidavit from the Trump campaign from Richard Hopkins, a postal worker from Erie, Pennsylvania, who said in his affidavit that Postmaster Rob Weisenbach directed him and his co-workers to pick up ballots after Election Day and provide them to him.
Pennsylvania law mandates that ballots must be postmarked by 8 p.m. on Election Day.
“I heard Weisenbach tell a supervisor at my office that Weisenbach was back-dating the postmarks on the ballots to make it appear as though the ballots had been collected on November 3, 2020 despite them in fact being collected on November 4 and possibly later.”
Hopkins described another conversation he overheard between Weisenbach with Darrell Locke, one of the supervisors for the Erie, Pennsylvania, post office on Thursday.
“Weisenbach and Locke discussed how on November 4, 2020, they had back-dated the postmark on all but one of the ballots collected on November 4, 2020 to make it appear as though the ballots had instead been collected on November 3, 2020. I overheard Weisenbach tell Locke that they ‘messed up yesterday’ — November 4, 2020 — by accidentally postmarking one ballot as having been collected November 4, 2020 (when it had actually been collected).”
According to Hopkins, Weisenbach and his assistant had ordered his co-workers and him to continue picking up ballots after Tuesday despite the requirement that ballots be mailed by then.
“Weisenbach directed that ballots be picked up through Friday, November 6, 2020. Moreover, Weisenbach directed that all ballots picked up through November 6, 2020 were to be given to him, presumably so they could be backdated by him and/or Locke,” Hopkins said.
Hopkins’s claims led Graham, a South Carolina Republican, to call for the Justice Department to further investigate all credible allegations of voting irregularities and misconduct.
“It is imperative that all credible allegations of voting irregularities and misconduct be investigated to ensure the integrity of the 2020 elections. The presidential election remains close in multiple states, and as Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, all credible allegations of voting irregularities and misconduct will be taken seriously. I will not allow credible allegations of voting irregularities or misconduct to be swept under the rug,” Graham said in a statement.
He continued: “I will be calling on the Department of Justice to investigate these claims. I’ll also be in contact with the Postmaster General, requesting he to look into these allegations, ones that may follow, and help secure the testimony of Mr. Hopkins. Mr. Hopkins is entitled to all whistleblower protections, and I will ensure they extend to other postal workers who may come forward with claims of irregulates, misconduct, fraud, etc.”
