Sheriff’s officials in San Bernardino County, California, say two batches of discarded mail, including voter ballots, were found on two different city blocks.
The discarded mail, found in the California towns of Joshua Tree and Twentynine Palms, was found on Wednesday and was apparently stolen from a cluster of mailboxes, according to CBS 2 Los Angeles.
Authorities say an investigation determined that incoming mail in general was being targeted as opposed to voter ballots specifically.
The case has been forwarded to the United States Postal Inspection Service for further investigation.
Discarded ballots were also found this week next to an ATM in nearby Los Angeles.
“You know, is this intentional?” the woman who found the ballots told the local news. “Is this meant to suppress the vote? I don’t know.”
Questions about the security of mail-in ballots have also risen in other parts of the country, including Pennsylvania, where discarded military ballots were found — the majority of which contained votes for President Trump, according to the Department of Justice.
A letter carrier in New Jersey was arrested this week for allegedly intentionally discarding as many 99 mail-in ballots into dumpsters.
Trump and fellow Republicans have criticized the push for mail-in voting, citing concerns about the integrity of the process, while Democrats have insisted that mail-in voting is necessary to protect voters from the spread of the coronavirus.
