Federal prosecutors announced charges Tuesday against a former mailman who they accused of dumping about 300 mail-in ballots he was supposed to deliver ahead of Utah’s primary election in June.
Damon Matai Seei told investigators he didn’t have any political agenda, though prosecutors sounded skeptical of that claim. He was covering a colleague’s route that day and said he was “overwhelmed” and wanted to finish faster.
Residents never received those ballots and some were unable to vote. Local officials said voting rates in the area were “remarkably low” in that election.
Officials figured the total number of ballots ditched was 304.
“When American voters lawfully cast their vote, they should feel confident that it is counted,” said acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter.
Mr. Seei pleaded not guilty. A trial was set for early November.
Mr. McCotter said the case was more evidence for why President Trump’s attempt to get the postal service to police mail balloting was needed.
Under Mr. Trump’s direction, the post office had called for all ballots to have special envelopes marking them as election mail, and barcodes so they could be tracked.
The Supreme Court has allowed an injunction against that plan to stand, meaning it won’t take effect for November’s elections.
Utah is one of eight states that conduct what’s called all-mail voting, where ballots are sent to every registered voter.
Mr. Trump says mail voting is susceptible to fraud, since mischief can occur when ballots leave a polling place.
His opponents accuse him of trying to suppress mail voters, who tend to be more heavily Democratic.
Prosecutors said Mr. Seei, the former mailman, did dump some mail beyond the ballots on the day in question, June 3.
They say Postal Service records indicate he started the route at 10:34 a.m. About an hour and a half in, he drove to a church parking lot, parked next to a dumpster for three minutes, then drove away.
That was not a stop on the route.
He told investigators he didn’t intend to “disrupt” the election. But prosecutors say he admitted to setting the mail ballots aside at the start of his route, which they said indicates he did target the election mail specifically.
Mr. Seei is no longer with the Postal Service.
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