A former U.S. Postal Service letter carrier in Utah has been federally indicted after prosecutors say he pulled more than 300 clearly marked mail-in ballots from his route and dumped them in a church parking lot without delivering a single one.

The ballots were headed to registered voters in Eagle Mountain for Utah’s June 23 primary.

A mistake with paperwork does not explain what prosecutors allege. If the charge is proven, the conduct directly denied hundreds of Americans access to their ballots.

The Justice Department announced the case Tuesday and identified the former carrier as 34-year-old Damon Matai Seei of Payson, Utah.

The department’s own post shows one of the ballot envelopes investigators say Seei was supposed to deliver.

ADVERTISEMENT

The Justice Department says a federal grand jury returned the indictment on September 16 after an investigation into missing election mail from the June primary.

Seei was arrested Tuesday and appeared for arraignment that afternoon at the Orrin G. Hatch U.S. Courthouse in Salt Lake City.

According to prosecutors, Seei began his route on June 3 with mail for at least 300 Eagle Mountain residents. The load included advertisements and hundreds of mail-in ballots for the upcoming primary.

The government alleges he separated the clearly marked ballots from the rest of the mail shortly after starting his shift, delivered none of them, and discarded the entire batch in a dumpster at a church parking lot.

The charge is unlawful secretion, destruction, and delay of mail. Seei’s next court appearance is scheduled for November 30.

Officials were careful to make the legal posture clear: an indictment is an allegation, and Seei is presumed innocent unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

The Postal Service Office of Inspector General and Homeland Security Investigations conducted the federal investigation. Assistant US Attorney Todd Bouton is prosecuting the case for the District of Utah.

DOJ officials said the integrity of mailed ballots depends on accountability inside the delivery system as well as at election offices. The alleged offense falls squarely inside that chain of custody.

The allegation itself is specific. These were live ballots addressed to registered voters, not campaign flyers or sample ballots.

ADVERTISEMENT

A federal employee had been entrusted to deliver them.

U.S. Attorney Melissa Holyoak said the investigation began after voters reported that their ballots had never arrived.

She laid out the case in an interview released after the indictment became public.

Fox News reports that prosecutors say the ballots were clearly marked and were separated from other mail at the beginning of the route. The entire disposal allegedly happened within roughly 90 minutes of Seei starting his shift.

The speed matters because it undercuts any suggestion that this was one envelope mistakenly lost in a mountain of ordinary mail. Federal prosecutors are describing a distinct batch of election material that was allegedly singled out and abandoned.

Investigators did not recover the ballots because the alleged disposal was discovered much later. Officials are still determining how many affected voters managed to cast ballots by another method.

Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter said Americans who lawfully vote should be confident their ballots will be counted. He called the alleged disposal a serious federal crime that undermines election integrity and stressed that ballot security is not a partisan issue.

He is right. An election system cannot depend on voters getting lucky enough to notice missing ballots before it is too late.

Postal employees occupy a position of extraordinary trust during mail elections. The envelopes they carry can determine whether a voter gets to participate at all.

ADVERTISEMENT

That is why this case should matter even to people who prefer voting in person. Every lawful method of voting has to be protected from fraud, sabotage, negligence, and partisan excuses.

Representative Buddy Carter pointed to the indictment as another reason for Congress to strengthen election safeguards.

KSL reports that prosecutors believe Seei discarded the mail to “lighten his workload.” A court filing says some affected voters were unable to vote, while officials are still trying to determine whether others found another way to cast ballots.

The local participation rate supplied a warning sign. U.S. Attorney Holyoak said the county clerk found turnout was remarkably low in the area where residents complained that their ballots never arrived.

Utah Lieutenant Governor Deidre Henderson, the state’s top election official, praised investigators for treating denial of lawful voting as seriously as illegal voting. She urged residents to use Utah’s system for verifying ballot delivery.

The joint federal response follows the evidence while preserving Seei’s right to contest the charge in court.

Election integrity is secured by provable cases, fair trials, and visible consequences—not by telling Americans to stop asking questions.

The Trump Justice Department is treating the allegation with the seriousness it deserves.

Now the case must be proved in court—and every institution responsible for handling ballots should take the warning.

ADVERTISEMENT

A ballot belongs in the voter’s hands or in the lawful counting process. It never belongs in a church dumpster.

 

Join The Conversation. Leave a Comment.