A favorite talking point of the conspiracy theorists goes down the toilet:
The findings came in a little-noticed February 26 report from the US Postal Service Office of Inspector General. The report drew widespread attention after being posted by the website 21st Century Postal Worker earlier this week.
The investigation was initially launched after Project Veritas, a far-right political operation seeking to undermine media outlets and tech companies, produced an affidavit from a "whistleblower" postal worker, Richard Hopkins, in November.
Hopkins claimed that he overheard other postal service employees in Erie County, Pennsylvania, backdating ballots that arrived in the mail. In the 2020 election, Pennsylvania counted only mail-in ballots sent by Election Day on November 3.
Hopkins recanted the affidavit he signed days later. A video obtained by Insider's Charles Davis showed that Hopkins had other people in the room as he swore to the affidavit over Zoom.
The Inspector General report said Hopkins admitted he never actually heard other employees talking about backdating ballots in the first place.
"[Hopkins] revised his claims, eventually stating that he had not heard a conversation about ballots at all - rather he saw the Postmaster and Supervisor having a discussion and assumed it was about fraudulent ballot backdating," the report says. "[Hopkins] acknowledged that he had no evidence of any backdated presidential ballots."
- The Postal Service released a report into claims that employees tampered with Pennsylvania ballots.
- They found "no evidence" for the accusations, first brought by Project Veritas.
- Investigators reviewed the ballots and found no indications of tampering.
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The findings came in a little-noticed February 26 report from the US Postal Service Office of Inspector General. The report drew widespread attention after being posted by the website 21st Century Postal Worker earlier this week.
The investigation was initially launched after Project Veritas, a far-right political operation seeking to undermine media outlets and tech companies, produced an affidavit from a "whistleblower" postal worker, Richard Hopkins, in November.
Hopkins claimed that he overheard other postal service employees in Erie County, Pennsylvania, backdating ballots that arrived in the mail. In the 2020 election, Pennsylvania counted only mail-in ballots sent by Election Day on November 3.
Hopkins recanted the affidavit he signed days later. A video obtained by Insider's Charles Davis showed that Hopkins had other people in the room as he swore to the affidavit over Zoom.
The Inspector General report said Hopkins admitted he never actually heard other employees talking about backdating ballots in the first place.
"[Hopkins] revised his claims, eventually stating that he had not heard a conversation about ballots at all - rather he saw the Postmaster and Supervisor having a discussion and assumed it was about fraudulent ballot backdating," the report says. "[Hopkins] acknowledged that he had no evidence of any backdated presidential ballots."
