Postal Worker Charged With Dumping 99 Election Ballots In New Jersey

Federal authorities Wednesday arrested a New Jersey postal worker who allegedly dumped hundreds of pieces of mail, including 99 general election ballots intended for voters in West Orange, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito announced.

Charges were filed against Nicholas Beauchene, 26, of Kearny, New Jersey. The two-count complaint accused him of delay, secretion or detention of mail and of obstruction of mail.

The U.S. attorney’s office said 1,875 pieces of mail had been discarded, including 276 campaign flyers from local candidates and 99 mail-in ballots. The mail was recovered from garbage bins in North Arlington and West Orange on Oct. 2 and 5 and put back into the delivery stream.

The charges carry possible penalties of 5 1/2 years in prison and $255,000 in fines upon conviction.

The incident feeds into President Donald Trump’s narrative questioning the safety of mail-in voting. The president has been attacking the process, alleging there will be widespread fraud, and urging election officials to discard any ballots that are not counted on election night.

Republican groups have been fighting state efforts to expand mail-in voting because of the coronavirus pandemic, which is expected to keep the number of people voting in person down sharply.

Changes at the U.S. Postal Service also have been playing havoc with delivery times. Documents submitted to a federal court indicate on-time delivery is declining, with first-class mail taking the biggest hit.

CNN reported that of the 28 states sending ballots to voters, 43% said they are seeing the worst delivery times of the year.

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has promised the postal service will be able to handle to expected surge of 80 million mail-in ballots.

The postal service blamed mid-September delays on backlogs caused by the Labor Day holiday, as well as fires in the West and hurricanes and tropical storms in the South.