WASHINGTON — An overwhelmed U.S.postal worker in Utah dumped 300 mail-in ballots into a parking lot garbage shortly before the state’s June 23 primary election in which both Democrats and Republicans were on the ballot, Justice Department officials said Tuesday.The 34-year-old mail carrier told investigators he did not have a political agenda, and that he also tossed other mail when he ditched the ballots, said Melissa Holyoak, U.S.
attorney for the District of Utah.She said roughly 95% of voters do so by mail in the state, and it wasn’t clear yet whether they were able to eventually cast ballots.
According to a government memo, Damon Matai Seei told investigators that he wanted to toss out advertisements to “lighten his workload” after feeling overwhelmed.“He claims he simply made a ‘poor decision’ out of ‘frustration’ and ‘laziness,’” the memo said.
He didn’t intend to toss any ballots, they said.Seei is no longer with the U.S.
Postal Service.He pleaded not guilty Tuesday to a charge of destruction and delay of mail.
The Trump administration has made investigating voter fraud — which is rare — a priority, as President Donald Trump insists without evidence that noncitizens are voting en masse and has sought to limit mail-in ballots.The Supreme Court last week refused to allow the president’s mail-in restrictions to be enforced.Trump has repeatedly made false claims that he won the 2020 election and also falsely claimed he won the popular vote in 2016, yet the Trump administration has struggled during both terms to bring cases showing evidence of significant voter fraud.
That’s despite a massive effort in Trump’s second term to obtain voter registration records from states in an attempt to determine if there were any noncitizens registered.So far during the president’s second term, the Justice Department has charged 70 voter-fraud related cases.At least 174 million people are registered to vote in the U.S.
Acting Deputy...