President Donald Trump has claimed that a postal worker in West Virginia was “selling” voting ballots. But West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner, a Republican, has refuted the president’s claim — and a postal worker who did plead guilty to attempted election fraud in that state, according to the Associated Press, wasn’t selling them.
During the raucous, chaotic presidential debate on Tuesday night, Trump referred to the case of Thomas Cooper — a postal worker who, AP notes, “pleaded guilty, in July, to attempted election fraud and injury to the mail after changing five ballot requests from Democrat to Republican. He also altered three other ballot applications by circling the word ‘Republican’ in a different color ink than what was used on the forms, Secretary of State Mac Warner said in a written statement.”
Cooper, according to AP, did admit to an illegal act, but Trump mischaracterized his actions. No ballots were sold, and Warner said that the attempted fraud was a “unique circumstance where a postal carrier altered absentee ballot applications, not ballots.” Continue reading.