Federal and state prosecutors in West Virginia announced Tuesday that it they had charged a U.S. Postal Service mail carrier with attempted fraud for allegedly tampering with requests for vote-by-mail absentee ballots.
A joint statement by West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, U.S. Attorney Bill Powell, and Secretary of State Mac Warner said:
Thomas Cooper, 47, of Dry Fork, stands charged with attempting to defraud the residents of West Virginia of a fair election. An affidavit accompanying the criminal complaint states Cooper fraudulently altered eight absentee ballot requests in Pendleton County, of which the complaint states he fraudulently changed the party affiliation on five from Democrat to Republican.
“Manipulating one’s absentee ballot or application is not a laughing matter – it’s a federal offense,” Attorney General Morrisey said. “We must protect the integrity of the ballot box, and this demonstrates the aggressive action we will take to do so. It is more important now than ever for voters to watch for unexplained or suspicious marks and/or any other irregularity with their ballot. If something looks suspicious, let us know right away.”
The affidavit states Cooper accessed the ballot requests through his employment as a rural mail carrier. He was responsible for mail delivery in the three towns from which the tampered requests were mailed – Onego, Riverton and Franklin.
According to the affidavit, Cooper admitted to altering some of the requests.
Local news station WTRF reported that the attempted fraud had been caught before it affected the election itself.
The announcement came at roughly the same time that Twitter assigneda fact check warning to President Donald Trump for his claims that voting by mail was uniquely susceptible to fraud.
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7 comments:
Trump needs to mention this.
Hang him in town square and it will never happen again
To hell with mail in ballots, if I can stand in line for walmart than I can certainly stand in line to vote IN PERSON.
I don’t believe he changed the party affiliations from Democrat to Republican. It must have been the other way around. Only the Democrats try to steal elections using tactics like this. I call BS.
Not defending the ridiculous idea of the postal service being entrusted to handle the 2020 election with mail in ballots but the guy was caught changing 5 ballots from Democrat to Republican. Hell it's taken two weeks to get a letter from salisbury to fruitland do you truly think they can be trusted with such vital responsibilities??
I told you this 2 weeks ago. You're going to trust the National Election to an organization who demonstrates incompetence every year by not being able to balance their own budget and also is the poster child for inefficiency? For the most part they're the worst model of government one could conjure up if it were a prerequisite for the Presidential race. If they could be trusted, Trump wouldn't be exposing mismanagement there constantly. He never condemns his departments unless he has the ammunition to make it stick. Ask Comey! If the Supreme Court
doesn't step in and stop this madness, there will never be another fair and legal election in our time.
What's important here is not that a rural mail carrier altered the party affiliations on 8 mail-in ballots, although it does offer evidence to refute the president's claim that when voter fraud occurs it only ever benefits democrats. The important thing here is that this guy got caught before his crimes could affect the outcome of the election.
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