A Los Angeles woman discovered more than 100 mail-in ballots while walking her dog this past weekend. With the state’s midterm primaries just a month away, local, state, and federal authorities are investigating the incident to ensure it was not an attempt to disrupt the election.
Christina Repaci was walking her dog Saturday morning in East Hollywood when she allegedly came upon a postal service bin full of unopened envelopes. She realized most of the envelopes were mail-in ballots and decided to take them home.
According to Repaci, she was rebuffed by the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department when she contacted them about the ballots.
She told Fox 11 Los Angeles, “I got an email back from a deputy basically in so many words saying it wasn’t their problem, and to contact the USPS.”
Repaci took to social media, posting videos and pictures soliciting guidance on where and to whom she should report the matter.
The Los Angeles County Registrar’s Office eventually contacted Repaci and arranged to pick up the ballots. Registrar-Recorder and County Clerk Dean Logan personally collected the ballots from Repaci’s home.
The Registrar’s Office later released a statement stating 104 unopened outbound ballots had been found among other pieces of mail and that any impacted voter would be receiving a new ballot.
The statement went on to claim that the investigation thus far points to “mail theft” rather than voter fraud. The Registrar’s Office also eventually confirmed that the ballots were, in fact, for California’s upcoming primary elections, scheduled for June 7.
Although local authorities were reportedly not initially responsive to the matter, they are now cooperating with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the federal law enforcement division of the U.S. Postal Service.
Repaci told Fox 11 that the experience was stressful and that it should not have been so difficult to find out what to do with the ballots.
“If it happens to someone else and they don’t know what to do, they’ll just put them in a dumpster or throw them in the trash,” she said. “This is a country of freedom, and our votes should matter, and something like this should never happen.”
