A rural site about four miles past the Santa Cruz Mountains summit, away from Los Gatos, is now the focus of the highest-priority investigation by the body that investigates mail system misdeeds.
That’s because this patch of ground along Sugarloaf Road, just north of Scotts Valley, is where a dozen or two election ballots were discovered, the United States Postal Service told the Los Gatan.
“This does not happen often,” said USPS spokesperson Justin Hastings, who noted its law enforcement arm, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, was in the middle of gathering additional information. “They’re like the FBI for the Postal Service.”
Sugarloaf Road is located in Santa Cruz County, about a 30 minute drive—without traffic—from the Santa Clara County elections office, at 1555 Berger Dr. in San Jose, where the ballots were supposed to end up.
It is a popular turn-out for motorists traveling along Highway 17.
Hastings said he couldn’t comment on the ongoing investigation, but noted it had been given top priority at the agency, which investigates things like mail fraud and package theft.
Michael Borja, a communications officer with the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters, said they were notified by NBC on Nov. 11, three days after Election Day, that a member of the public had found the missing ballots alongside other mail.
“It looked like it was from the USPS mail stream,” he said. “From there we began working with the USPS to resolve it as quickly as possible.”
Borja said it’s too soon to have a sense of what really occurred.
“We’re very concerned and we’re taking it very seriously,” he said. “We would like to get the ballots in our hands.”
County elections officials hope USPS can wrap up its probe by next week.
“Once they conclude their investigation we plan to take possession of the ballots,” Borja said, noting authorities still have to review the law to see if these citizens’ votes can be counted. “There’s many safeguards.”
Borja says he’s not aware of any other time this has happened.
“It’s a rare occurrence,” he said, adding the investigation might reveal no postal worker is at fault. “It could also be someone taking stuff from USPS.
“We can’t assume anything.”
