Federal prosecutors have charged a former U.S. Postal Service mail carrier in Utah with allegedly throwing away hundreds of pieces of mail, including about 300 mail-in ballots intended for voters in Eagle Mountain ahead of the state’s June primary.
A federal grand jury indicted Damon Matai Seei, 34, of Payson, Utah, on Sept. 16 on charges of unlawful secretion, destruction and delay of mail. The indictment was unsealed Tuesday. Seei was arrested and appeared for arraignment at the Orrin G. Hatch U.S. Courthouse, and his next court appearance is scheduled for Nov. 30.
According to court documents, Seei was working as a letter carrier on June 3 and was assigned to deliver mail to at least 300 Eagle Mountain residents. Prosecutors allege that the mail included advertisements and ballots sent to registered voters for the June 23 primary election.
Instead of delivering some of that mail, Seei allegedly placed it in a dumpster in a church parking lot, prosecutors said. The charges are allegations, and Seei is presumed innocent until proven guilty in court.
The case follows reports this summer from Eagle Mountain residents who said they did not receive ballots in time to vote in the primary. Utah County Clerk Aaron Davidson said at the time that the complaints appeared concentrated in House District 50.
Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter, appearing publicly for the first time since being appointed by President Donald Trump to the acting deputy attorney general post earlier this summer, used Tuesday’s announcement to frame the Utah prosecution as part of a broader department focus on election-related offenses.
McCotter said the Justice Department has thousands of election-related investigations either ongoing or awaiting further action, contrasting that figure with what he described as a far smaller election-enforcement caseload during the Biden administration.
“When American voters lawfully cast their vote, they should feel confident that it is counted,” McCotter said. “Allegedly throwing away hundreds of ballots is a serious federal crime that undermines the integrity of our elections. Ballot integrity is not a partisan issue.”
Officials declined to offer any insight about the specific motivations, or whether they were political in nature.
Melissa Holyoak, the U.S. attorney for Utah, said the alleged conduct deprived residents of an opportunity to exercise their voting rights. Holyoak also declined to discuss specific motivations, but said there were other pieces of mail thrown in the trash along with the ballots.
The investigation was conducted jointly by the Postal Service Office of Inspector General and Homeland Security Investigations.
Just last week, the DOJ announced charges against 16 people in separate cases involving alleged illegal voting, fraudulent voter registration, and related election-fraud offenses nationwide. The cases included allegations of noncitizens voting in federal elections or falsely claiming U.S. citizenship to register or vote, as well as related wire, naturalization, passport, and firearm fraud charges. The defendants were charged across eight federal districts, with eight of the cases brought in Texas.
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The Utah case comes as the department expands its election-monitoring plans for November’s midterm elections. Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general who leads the Civil Rights Division, said Monday that the department was nearing its target of recruiting 1,000 lawyers and other trained legal staff to monitor selected general-election jurisdictions.
The planned deployment would be the largest federal election-monitoring contingent in U.S. history, according to Dhillon.