Elections
Utah postal worker indicted after allegedly discarding mail-in ballots during state primary
PN Team • 1 month ago
The Justice Department has charged a Utah postal worker with discarding more than 300 mail-in ballots ahead of the state's June primary. Damon Matai Seei, 34, of Payson, was indicted by a federal grand jury on Sept. 16 on charges of unlawful secretion, destruction and delay of mail; the indictment was unsealed and Seei was arrested and arraigned in federal court in Salt Lake City, pleading not guilty. His next court appearance is scheduled for Nov. 30. Officials said Seei, a letter carrier in Eagle Mountain, dumped the ballots along with other mail into a dumpster at a church parking lot shortly after starting his shift on June 3, and never delivered them. Prosecutors said Seei admitted he threw away the mail to "lighten his workload," and officials declined to say whether the conduct was politically motivated.
The case comes amid heightened national scrutiny of mail-in voting security ahead of the 2026 midterms. Most Utah voters cast ballots by mail, and nearly a third of voters nationwide use the method. The DOJ says it is expanding election-monitoring efforts and pursuing thousands of election-related investigations nationwide.
Sources:
Sentiment
- United States Postal Service A USPS employee's alleged misconduct in discarding ballots reflects negatively on the postal service's reliability.
- Utah Utah is tied to the ballot-discarding incident and its reliance on mail-in voting, casting a slight shadow on the state's election process.
- United States The case is framed within national concerns about mail-in voting security, a mildly negative context for the country's election integrity.
- Salt Lake City Salt Lake City is mentioned only as the location of the federal court proceedings, a neutral factual detail.