A non-liquid substance was found in a mail-in ballot received by the Chester County Voter Services on Friday morning at the Chester County government headquarters, according to Chester County District Attorney Chris de Barrena-Sarobe.
According to District Attorney Barrena-Sarobe, a Voter Services worker was receiving and organizing ballots at the county’s headquarters on the 300 block of West Market Street in West Chester when the worker felt a non-liquid substance from the outside of a ballot.
Following the discovery, de Barrena-Sarobe said 9-1-1 was notified and a hazmat team was deployed to check for chemical and biological hazards. None were found.
Chester County officials said no ballots had been opened as of Friday.
de Barrena-Sarobe said employees in the building were isolated and monitored during the hazmat team’s investigation, and the building was shut down by the Chester County Sheriff’s Department. The building was reopened within 90 minutes, according to de Barrena-Sarobe.
The ballot in question was turned over to the the FBI, which will conduct additional tests to identify the substance, de Barrena-Sarobe said.
de Barrena-Sarobe also said Chester County detectives and the FBI are jointly investigating the incident, and Voter Services is working with investigators to determine how the ballot was received.
Chester County Commissioner Joshua Maxwell said ballot handling and sorting was halted for 3 hours as a result of the incident.
“We actually a month ago had a cross-department meeting where we did exercises and scenarios and this was one of them. We executed our plan to perfection today” said Barrena-Sarobe. “I want all voters to know that we’re prepared. And we’re prepared because we work together.”
The press event held by Chester County officials can be found at the top of this article.
