As mail-in voting begins in many states, and President Donald Trump continues to question its validity, one of battleground Pennsylvania's three pivotal counties has been thrust into the national spotlight after a small number of mail-in ballots were found in a trash dumpster outside a board of elections office.

The U.S. Attorney's Office of the Middle District of Pennsylvania and the FBI's Scranton Office earlier this week said they "began an inquiry into reports of potential issues with a small number of mail-in ballots at the Luzerne County Board of Elections."

"At this point we can confirm that a small number of military ballots were discarded. Investigators have recovered nine ballots at this time. Some of those ballots can be attributed to specific voters and some cannot," the U.S. attorney's office said in a statement.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in the Middle District of Pennsylvania first announced in an initial press release that all nine ballots were cast for Trump, but later corrected that number to seven and said two were resealed inside the envelope. Pennsylvania utilizes "secrecy envelopes" that cover cast ballots in addition to the larger, mailing envelope.

"Of the nine ballots that were discarded and then recovered, 7 were cast for presidential candidate Donald Trump," the updated release said. "Two of the discarded ballots had been resealed inside their appropriate envelopes by Luzerne elections staff prior to recovery by the FBI and the contents of those 2 ballots are unknown."

The situation was cited by White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany before the U.S. attorney’s statement during Thursday's White House press briefing when she was asked about the president's criticism of mail-in voting.

"I can confirm for you that Trump ballots, ballots for the president, were found in Pennsylvania and I believe you should be getting more information on that shortly," she said. "Here In the last 24 hours, they were found cast aside."