US Postal Service to Investigate Mail Dumped in California Weeks Before Election

By Mary Anne R. First Posted: Sep 11, 2020 04:14 AM EDT

U.S. Postal Service is looking at recent incidents in California, which included bags of mail dumped in a parking lot and in a nearby alley for no reason.

The incident in Glendale occurred amid a national debate about the reliability of the U.S. Postal Service weeks ahead before the U.S. presidential election.

Mail-in ballots are seen to play an important role in the upcoming presidential election due to the coronavirus pandemic, which impedes the physical voting process.

Glendale police alerted U.S. Postal Service after the bags of dumped mail were discovered. Mishandling mail is potentially a federal crime.

The business owner reported the dumping in the parking lot of 7Q Spa Laser and Aesthetics. The owner was alerted by one of her employees.

Upon checking the shop's security camera footage, it showed a rental truck pulling into the parking lot and the mail being dumped.

Spa owner Lilian Serobian said the employee called her and sent the video with a bunch of U.S. Postal Service packages in the parking lot.

"I saw the big Budget [rental] truck [in the video] back up to the parking lot and, one by one, start dropping off the packages. Then I found out that this wasn't the first incident in the area," she said in a report.

Glendale police later told Serobian that a pile of mail had been found a few blocks away from her business. The spa owner said it was so suspicious.

Serobian said that it is not something that would be an accident. She said that it was a pile of assorted size of unopened boxes.

"Maybe there's something behind it which I don't know what, but hopefully they will find out, and prevent this from happening," Serobian noted.

A U.S. Postal Service spokesperson has declined to comment on ongoing investigations. However, postal officials said that the truck driver was not a U.S. Postal Service employee, adding that it was a contractor.

The agency also said that the discarded mail was picked up and would be delivered to the rightful receivers.

Several issues were surrounding the mail-in voting procedure weeks before the election in November. President Donald Trump was also one to express his doubts about the integrity of mail-in voting.

California Secretary of State Alex Padilla, the head election official for the country's most populous state, said that vote by mail is proven to successful, secure, convenient, and probably the safest option for voting.

Padilla added that voting by mail could also help poll workers and Americans, who chose to vote in person, avoid exposure to the coronavirus disease.

"More people who vote early, whether it's in person or by mail, should translate into shorter lines, smaller crowds and a safer experience on Election Day for both voters and election workers," Padilla said in a report.

Mechanics of voting by mail differ in each state. Officials are guided by unique election laws and procedures and can be intimidating for voters. Election experts said the best advice is to get educated on the best options and to act early.