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Federal authorities are investigating &ldquo;issues with a small number of mail-in ballots&rdquo; that had been received by the Luzerne County election bureau, county District Attorney Stefanie Salavantis announced Tuesday.
				The county administration had notified the District Attorney&rsquo;s Office of the matter on Sept. 17, the release said. It did not elaborate on potential concerns.
				The only county voters who have received mail-in ballots for the Nov. 3 election are civilians and military personnel overseas due to the additional delivery time required, an official said. Ballots for other voters who requested them were scheduled to be mailed the end of September, but the mailing is now set for the first week of October, the county election office said.
				Based upon the information supplied by the administration, the District Attorney&rsquo;s Office initiated an investigation into the reported ballots and consulted with the United States Attorney&rsquo;s Office.
				After a Sept. 21 review at the request of Salavantis, federal authorities assumed lead investigative authority of the incident with the assistance of county detectives, the release said.
				&ldquo;The investigation is in its early stages, and we are confident that it will be successfully resolved so it will not have an impact on the integrity of the election process,&rdquo; the release said.
				County Manager C. David Pedri and other top county officials declined comment on the issues that prompted the reporting to the district attorney, citing the ongoing investigation.
				Pedri said the county identified an issue and reported it to authorities.
				&ldquo;We thank the district attorney and the federal authorities for quickly accepting our request and for their professional work in the matter,&rdquo; Pedri said. &ldquo;The county will work in cooperation with the authorities throughout their review.&rdquo;
				Both the District Attorney&rsquo;s Office and county election bureau issued a reminder that voters choosing mail-in voting on Nov. 3 should only submit one request for a ballot.
				County officials have issued this plea before, saying duplicate applications force the bureau to spend more time on processing. Officials also have stressed that only one ballot will be issued to each voter, as tracked by a unique bar code.
				The district attorney&rsquo;s release also encouraged mail-in ballot applicants to visit the Pennsylvania Department of State website at https://www.dos.pa.gov/Pages/default.aspx to check the status of their vote.

DA: Federal authorities investigating unspecified Luzerne County ballot issues