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Utah Postal Worker Charged With Dumping 300 Mail-In Ballots

6 sources · updated 2026-09-24
Left 33% Center 33% Right 33%
2 left · 2 center · 2 right

What happened

Damon Matai Seei, 34, of Payson, Utah, a former U.S. Postal Service letter carrier, was charged with unlawful secretion, destruction, and delay of mail after prosecutors alleged he discarded about 300 mail-in ballots and other mail in a dumpster. On June 3, while on a route in Eagle Mountain, Utah, ahead of the state’s June 23 primary, the Justice Department says he set the ballots aside shortly after starting his shift and threw them out about 90 minutes later without delivering any. A federal grand jury indicted him on September 16; the indictment was unsealed when he was arrested, arraigned in Salt Lake City federal court, and pleaded not guilty, with a next appearance set for November 30. Seei told investigators he had no political agenda and discarded mail, including advertisements, to lighten his workload, calling it a “poor decision” out of “frustration” and “laziness.” Several voters later told the Utah County clerk they had not received ballots, participation was unusually low in that area, and officials said it remains unclear whether those voters obtained replacements or cast ballots.
Sourcing check · Mostly on the record · 6 articles

5 of 6 articles cite a named source for the story. It was on the record from the first report.

What these terms mean and how they're counted
On the record · names a source 5 of 6
On the record means the article cites a source by name for the story's main claim: a person, or an institution speaking officially, such as a company statement or a named agency's spokesperson. The opposite is an unnamed source. The count is how many of the counted articles cite at least one such source; the names are everyone named across them, each once however the articles spell it. Here: Melissa Holyoak, Damon Matai Seei, Justice Department, Trent McCotter, DOJ and Department of Justice
Primary evidence · cites a document or data 5 of 6
Primary evidence means the article cites a record you could check yourself: a court filing or ruling, a dataset or report, a recording or transcript, an official statement or press release, market data. A quote is not a document. The count is how many articles cite one. Here: government memo, indictment, court records, interview
Credits another outlet 0 of 6
The article says the story comes from another outlet's reporting (“first reported by Reuters”). Those articles relay the story; they are not independent confirmation. Here: Each article presents its own reporting.
Unnamed sources 1 of 6
The main claim is attributed to people who are not identified: “people familiar with the matter”, “officials said”. The count is how many articles do this.
How it developed
When the first report landed and whether it named anyone; when the first named source and the first document appeared. Here: First report Sep 22, 20:31 UTC by NBC News, naming its source. First document in the first report, from NBC News (government memo).
Not counted 0
Opinion, analysis and video pieces, and articles too short to assess. Every count above is out of the counted articles. An article republished under a new headline is one article.
This is about who is cited, not whether the story is true. Each source below says what it names. How we count
Omitted — what each side leaves out

Unpacked

The two sides leave out opposite facts about what the carrier did. Left-leaning coverage in NBC News describes a carrier tossing advertisements after feeling overwhelmed and says he did not mean to throw out ballots. Right-leaning coverage in Fox News reports that he set the ballots aside at the start of his shift and delivered none of them. That same coverage adds that a clerk found turnout unusually low in the area where voters complained they never received ballots. Left-leaning coverage in NBC News moves from the Utah carrier to a list of other Justice Department voting cases and to the claim that voter fraud is "rare." Right-leaning coverage never mentions those other cases and does not discuss how common fraud is. Did any contest in Utah's June primary close by fewer votes than the ballots that were dumped?
Bottom line

NBC News never reported that the carrier set the ballots aside or that a clerk found unusually low turnout; Fox News never reported that he told investigators he was tossing advertisements out of laziness.

The receipts — 3 facts one side's coverage lacks
  • Seei separated the ballots from other mail shortly after starting his shift and did not deliver any of them. individual casein Fox News, CBS News · absent from left-leaning coverage
  • The Utah County clerk found voter participation unusually low in the area where voters complained they had not received ballots. official statementin Fox News · absent from left-leaning coverage
  • Roughly 95% of Utah voters cast ballots by mail. numberin NBC News · absent from right-leaning coverage
The Left View
Left-leaning coverage, especially NBC News, frames the case as workplace negligence rather than politically motivated interference, stressing Seei’s account that he acted from “laziness” with no political agenda. NBC presents the Justice Department’s Washington news conference as part of the Trump administration’s push to promote “election integrity” and elevate possible voter fraud—which NBC says “is rare”—alongside the president’s claims about mail-in ballots and noncitizen voting. It notes 70 voter-fraud-related charges against a backdrop of more than 170 million registered voters, that the administration has “struggled during both terms to bring cases showing evidence of significant voter fraud,” and that materials from such announcements “could help feed Trump’s broader narrative about elections” heading into a difficult midterms picture for Republicans. Voting-rights experts cited there say isolated fraud occurs, but not on a scale that changed the 2020 presidential outcome.
The Right View
Right-leaning outlets treat the indictment as a serious election-integrity case, not a minor personnel lapse. Fox News and the Washington Examiner foreground Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter’s statement that “allegedly throwing away hundreds of ballots is a serious federal crime that undermines the integrity of our elections” and that “ballot integrity is not a partisan issue,” plus his line that voters “should feel confident that [their vote] is counted.” They emphasize that the ballots were clearly marked, that none were delivered, that voters complained and participation was unusually low in the affected area, and that officials still do not know whether those voters ultimately voted. Fox also places the charge among other Justice Department election-integrity actions.
Our Take (balanced)
The left’s strongest argument is that Seei’s own statements—laziness and a desire to lighten his workload, with no political motive—show an isolated personnel failure, not a partisan plot or proof of widespread mail-in fraud; NBC’s contrast of 70 related charges with more than 170 million registered voters, and the claim that proven fraud is rare, is the supporting evidence. The right’s strongest argument is that motive is secondary: discarding hundreds of clearly marked ballots without delivering any, followed by voter complaints and unusually low participation, is itself a concrete breach of ballot security, as McCotter argued in calling it a serious federal crime that undermines election integrity. The central unresolved tension is whether this episode is best read as individual negligence that should not be generalized to mail-in voting as a system, or as evidence that the mail-ballot chain of custody is fragile enough that such cases belong at the center of the election-integrity debate.

6 sources

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