A Santa Fe couple found 11 completed absentee ballots belonging to other voters in mail held while they were away on vacation. County Clerk Katharine Clark retrieved the ballots herself that night, driving through flooding during a tornado warning.
Clark said she learned about the ballots from a Nextdoor post on Saturday night, according to KOAT. She went to the couple’s home and said all 11 appeared untouched: “None of them had been tampered with,” she told the station.
Clark put the ballots in a ballot bag and took them directly to the warehouse to be counted, KOAT reported. She said her office had alerted postal officials. The U.S. Postal Service told the station it had received a request for comment and was looking into the matter.
A Mistake, Not Necessarily Malice
Clark said the misdelivery might have been a mistake rather than intentional wrongdoing. She described such incidents as rare, while saying she had raised concerns about Santa Fe mail delivery for years. She also said mail service faces heavy pressure during election cycles, with congressional offices and election officials fielding complaints, according to KOAT…