Originally published November 1, 2022
By Victoria Kline
Reprinted with permission from Integrity Intercept, Eyes on the Truth, Intercept Seven, Postal Police
I believe we like mail because everyday it feels like our birthday. Envelopes and packages appear like presents, especially since Amazon joined the delivery business.
One treasure that is part of the mail process is the requested mail in election ballot. The ballot gives one a sense of control over time and information of the issues and candidates. We may like a mail in ballot because we feel it steadies the chaos.
Out of all the concerns about Free and Fair elections, research into widespread mail-in voting which leads to fraud was a top concern. This survey is quoted in Molly Hemingway’s book, Rigged. She writes, “In a 2005 bipartisan commission co-chaired by none other than Jimmy Carter found that absentee balloting was the largest source of fraud in American elections. Why should 2020 be any different? “(1)(2). The report issued 86 recommendations. She continues, “some of the key issues was that mail-in balloting would be hard to track and some states would bombard addresses with ballots for previous residents who had moved out but hadn’t been struck from the voter rolls. What would happen to all the excess ballots? They worried that lowering or in some cases eliminating, standards for signature verification on mail-in ballots could make it impossible to challenge those fraudulently cast….and they worried that third party ballot harvesting would encourage voter fraud. And some states ordered unsupervised drop boxes to replace or supplement ordinary polling stations.” I could type out the entire chapter from this well-documented source, which makes stellar points to why mail-in ballots are the Pelt-Down Man story of elections.
I called the Kansas City Missouri and Kansas City Kansas post offices about their procedures to make sure we did not have postal workers throwing away ballots from political parties they do not like, I quoted from my favorite New York post article about a Whistleblower who ran a network for years. (3) They directed me to links that provided procedures and paperwork on this matter. The Kansas City post offices assured me that this is not applicable to Greater Kansas City, because the penalties were so intense.
The justice system is not punishing criminals for violating the law the way they used to. Therefore, I find this answer to be pejorative. Presently, the post office is hemorrhaging and largely delivers third-class mail. Amazon can do a better job than they can. (Although new articles are trying to repair their reputation) One line from the New York Post article, “A top Democratic operative says voter fraud, especially with mail-in ballots, is no myth. And he knows this because he’s been doing it, on a grand scale, for decades.” I move to my favorite sentence, “but the political insider, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he fears prosecution, said fraud is more the rule than the exception.” He came forward because poor Bernie Sanders, the socialist, had no dog in the race and was being cheated.
My good friend worked in the rural post office of Missouri for thirteen years. I was relieved she quit after hearing weekly postal skullduggery as she felt her soul vacated. (4) Postal workers HATE political mail. Her observation was that President Trump hardly ever put out political mail. Obama had flyers so large it was hard to get them into people’s boxes and they were delivered first class, while only paying for third class. Once, she reported a whole tray of mail in a trash dumpster.
What prompted this Intercept is the gymnastics’ journalism on the issue of the postal police and their duties which began in 1971 and went through a snipping in September 2020 by the Post Office, which the Postal Police Association sued the Post Office for removing long standing policing authority down to only the building or property of the post offices. The reorganizing calls into question the care for postal employees and following up on criminal activity outside of the physical post office. Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown presently is requesting that the postal police be restored to their original mandate. “Washington D.C. U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown wants U.S. Postal Service leaders to restore postal service police patrols in Ohio and take other steps to address increased robberies of mail carriers and mail thefts that result in check fraud.
A letter Brown sent Friday to United States Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and Inspector General Whitcomb Hull traces a surge in postal robberies throughout Ohio to a decision to stop having Postal Police Officers patrol mail carrier routes and around USPS collection boxes. Brown’s letter said mail carriers in locations including Columbus, Cleveland, and Beachwood “have been the victims of brazen armed robberies,” to get collection box keys that organized crime uses to steal mail.”
In April of 2021, Jana Winter, Investigative Correspondent, wrote an article, “It appears the law enforcement arm of the U.S. Postal Service has been quietly running a program that tracks and collects Americans’ social media posts, including those about planned protests, according to a document obtained by Yahoo.news.” The surveillance effort was known as ICOP, or Internet Covert Operations Program, which had not been previously made public. “Analysts trawl through social media sites to look for what the document describes as “inflammatory” postings and then sharing that information across government agencies.”(5) This was brought to the audience of Jovan Hutton Pulitzer in his Locals channel October 26, 2022 with this question, “Why would you begin an operation in September of 2020 before the election and end it a few months after the new administration went in? People were being thrown in jail because of January 6th, and social media is being used against them. Did someone know something about January 6th? Did they expect people to be angry and lash out on social media? Both Parlor and Telegram are named as being watched heavily.” Ergo, perhaps the warning by Gregg Philips about Telegram. (6)
The article continues, “The Postal Service had a turbulent year, facing financial insolvency and allegations that it’s head, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, was slowing down deliveries just as the pandemic vastly increased the number of mail-in ballots for the 2020 election. Why the post office would move into social media surveillance, which would appear to have little to do with mail deliveries, is unclear.” FYI, attacks on Mr. DeJoy began the minute his name was uttered for his job. To be clear historically mail-in ballots have been used for military and other exceptions yet are not the rule to conducting elections. (7) Besides, this statement in the article is meant to make you question DeJoy’s actions, who is a Trump appointee.
The ICOP enforcement arm is one of seven groups that deal with cybercrime, according to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. The mail is targeted to watch for illegal drug activity, fraud or violent crime being organized. The article assures us, calls were made to Civil Liberties “experts.” Whew, that steadies the nerves. I quote, “The official added that the department is working with “civil rights and civil liberties colleagues, as well as our private colleagues, to ensure that everything we’re doing is being done responsibly and in line with civil rights and civil liberties and individual privacy.” Why are we always going to outside sources to find out if we are doing the work of the government properly? Why are non-elected people dictating protocol to our elected officials?
Thoughts the article expresses.
1. Exposes a surveillance from a “trusted” long standing source. Exposure of criminal behavior inside of the FBI and DHS, this will shift the blame when it came out in April, 2021.
2. They report that the Post Office is not supposed to have surveillance of internet security as one of their tasks. They supply a quote from Obama University law Professor appointee Geoffrey Stone, hired to review National Security Agency metadata collection, due to the Snowden debacle. Keeping score? Trump’s appointee receives a slap, Obama’s hire looking for answers.
3: Reinforces the truth by saying “no intelligence is available to suggest the legitimacy of these threats.” And “details were included but whose posts did not appear to contain anything threatening.” (Which means, we haven’t really found anything, and we soldier on wasting people’s time and money). The journalist provides a gallant quote from the U.S. Postal service regarding their job to “protect…employees, infrastructure, and customers; enforce and defend the nation’s mail system from illegal and dangerous use and ensure public trust in the mail.” The article goes on to say ICOP works with other law enforcement agencies to identify and assess potential threats, such as the FBI and Homeland Security. Then they toss DHS under the bus letting everyone know they are not the only part of the government that is monitoring social media, DHS is doing it too, finding in social media domestic terrorism threats. “Perceived threats that fuel false narratives, conspiracy theories and extremist rhetoric read through social media and other online platforms.”
Please note the ability to pull off a pile of donkey doo here.
If government security agencies are concerned about watching the mail, the internet for guns purchased or sent through the mail, or even organizing groups to operate in their freedom of speech rights. Why then did the government seek to remove the investigative ability of the Postal Police Association in September 2020, when the surveillance operation was starting? Who is suggesting it start? The FBI or Homeland Security? Why take a group of trained officers for mail and the protection of property at the post office out at the same time they are monitoring cyber? The Postal Police did not understand either and they sued the United States Postal Service. (8)
The Chicago lawyer Geoffrey Stone wants to know, (I doubt highly he really wants to know. They just need him to say he does) how the post office feels it’s their place to set up a sting operation or surveillance through the Postal System, this is out of their purview. Obama’s previous hire appears offended they [post office security] are doing this, when in reality numerous postal unions are being paid off by not making postal employees take the Covid shots.
The article strengthens this observation by adding a statement by Rachel Levinson-Waldman, deputy director of the Brennan Center for Justice and liberty, “It’s not clear why their mandate would include monitoring of social media that’s unrelated to the use of the postal system.” She raises questions about the legality of the program. Then tosses in that they were not the only agency monitoring social media posts in the wake of January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol. Why would anyone think there would be attacks January 6th, unless let’s say a law enforcement agency like the FBI, had their own operation going on in parlor and telegram to incite and set up groups that later would be blamed for a January 6th riot?
Remember Homeland Security’s quote, “We know this threat is fueled mainly by false narratives…” Whose false narratives? The FBI, the Postal undercover cyber analysis that look for potential threats to Postal Service, its employees and customers….” Why would the post office get threats during and up to the elections?”
Then, with the sweep of a hand they remove any idea that the Post office could really pull off this type of sting operation by remarking about the Post Office security team that, “There are other federal agencies that could do this, I don’t understand why the post office would be doing it…” adding “the sophistication that you would want if you were dealing with national security issues of this sort.” Besides it is necessary, to slide into the article this [mis]information to encourage the public that the Democrats have been on this possible capitol riot issue since the Flintstones premier by adding, “Democratic lawmakers have lambasted the FBI and federal law enforcement agencies for missing or failing to respond to public calls for violence at the Capitol on social media platforms ahead of the Jan. 6 riot.” The article is meant to make hero’s out of people that probably should be suspects and suspects out of people that were probably trying to do their job correctly.
Here are a few facts that makes this operation even more strange.
- Attorney General William Barr expressed that the 2000 Mules surveillance was a “crock”, not only did the 2000 Mules video show people dropping ballots in the ballot boxes, but postal workers were also dropping and stuffing ballot boxes and there was a coordinated effort to work with the Detroit Michigan area. Ironically, where Konnech, Eugene Yu’s company resides. I wonder if the Postal Police would have sniffed him out? (8)
- William Barr had numerous notifications of irregularities to his office about Mail-ballot issues and drop box violations. He did not investigate a single incident. (9)
- All mail to the post office is photographed. People can request pictures of their mail sent to their email every day. I know two people who personally do this. The photography is kept for up to six years. From September 2020 to April of 2021, the machines were set to purge all mail photos after four weeks, this began during ICOP covert operations, and the Postal Police were being kicked in the head about job descriptions. Why? The photography is evidence for numerous ballots to the same address and the ballots do have certain identifying markings to show rather it is Democrat or Republican. If the ballot showed it was in the mail and did not arrive, then Houston you have a problem.
- The Union for The United States Post Office workers came out for Biden for the 2020 race. A key question is what Union(s) should be allowed to back a candidate in which most of its employees handle the prized mail that could put him or her into office. More and more states are opting for complete mail in ballot elections. This is not fair to those who wish to hold to the Constitutional guidelines and see the problems with putting people into office that could allow our entire nation to fall into enemy hands or usher in a type of repressive government. (10)
- It was not mandatory for the United States Postal Workers to take the Covid shot. They were exempt. Postal workers have a high rate of daily contact with the public, this made no sense to the argument of why people needed to take the shot. It was also not mandated to the CDC or Pfizer employees as well. (11)
- The claim for the covert operation was to monitor Second Amendment advocates, who supposedly may also speak of wishing to do violence at the March 16, 2021, Worldwide Rally for Freedom and Democracy, protesting coronavirus lockdown restrictions. Information gathered was used more for the January 6th protestors.
- Why did the Post Office CREATE a New Post Office division that will oversee just election ballots. Yeah, nothing can go wrong with this idea.
- Every six months a report by the Inspector General on the United States Postal Service is available. This report, submitted pursuant to the Inspector General Act, outlines our work and activities for the six-month period ending March 31, 2022. During this period, we issued 51 audit reports, management advisories, and white papers, and the Postal Service accepted 88 percent of our recommendations. We completed 1,473 investigations that led to 448 arrests and more than $113 million in fines, restitutions, and recoveries, more than $14 million of which was returned to the Postal Service. This is an excellent report. I could see why someone would want to destroy this type of agency for its effectiveness or move it under their control. https://www.uspsoig.gov/sites/default/files/document-library-files/2022/FY2022_Spring_SARC.pdf
Here are few headlines to consider.
1. “13 postal workers arrested, part of $1.3 million credit card theft scheme, feds say”. https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/multiple-us-postal-service-employees-and-others-arrested-13-million-fraud-and-identity “The defendants took advantage of the public trust we place in U.S. Postal Service employees for their own financial gain. Thanks to the diligence of USPIS, the NYPD, and USPS-OIG, the defendants will now be held accountable for their brazen criminal conduct.” No telling how long they knew about this problem before making it public at a time when the article came out about, “Is the post office spying on you?”.
2. “Postal Worker Who Dumped More than 200 Absentee Ballots, Fired, May Face Federal Charges.” https://news.yahoo.com/kentucky-postal-worker-dumped-more-164506184.html That is a 112 people whose vote could have been disenfranchised along with 99 ballots mentioned being discarded in New Jersey. The article wishes to say out of the 630,000 USPS employees, this is rare. Except for the fact the whistleblower in the opening of this opinion piece says it’s the rule not the exception.
3. “Two Pennsylvania Postal Workers federally charged throwing away mail” https://www.breitbart.com/2020-election/2020/10/15/two-pennsylvania-postal-workers-federally-charged-throwing-away-mail/ This happen just weeks before the 2020 election, it should have been the writing on the wall for the upcoming issues in Pennsylvania.
5. Here is one of the cases at Parker Post Office in Colorado https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=post+office+mail+crimes&docid=608002816548013317&mid=87C09E58A287CBF188E887C09E58A287CBF188E8&view=detail&FORM=VIRE
6. Postal Police duties reduced when lawsuit filed.
When New York jeweler Harry Winston donated the famous Hope Diamond – all 45.52 carats of it – to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., he chose a familiar, trusted carrier to transport the jewel: the Post Office Department. “It’s the safest way to mail gems,” Winston told The Evening Star (Washington, D.C.). “I’ve sent gems all over the world that way.” On November 8, 1958, he sent the precious stone via registered, First-Class Mail, from New York City to the Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. The postage cost him $2.44, plus $142.85 for $1 million worth of insurance. (14). We are not there anymore with the postal system or Washington D.C., and it’s sad.
1. Hemingway, M. (2022). Rigged: How the Media, Big Tech, and the Democrats Seized Our Elections. Regnery Publishing. (Prologue, xi)
2. https://nypost.com/2020/08/29/political-insider-explains-voter-fraud-with-mail-in-ballots/
3. https://www.wsj.com/articles/heed-jimmy-carter-on-the-danger-of-mail-in-voting-11586557667 Heed Jimmy Carter’s warning.
4. https://www.jurist.org/news/2005/09/election-commission-recommends/ 87 recommendations
6. https://qanon-news.com/en/telegramgate-gregg-phillips-warning-do-we-need-to-delete-our-accounts/
7. https://time.com/5892357/voting-by-mail-history/
9. Bill Barr 2000 Mules is a crock. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/bill-barr-scoffs-2000-mules-movie
10.. https://www.independentsentinel.com/bill-barr-accused-of-lying-about-investigation-of-2020-election/ Did not investigate the election
11. https://news.yahoo.com/postal-workers-union-backs-biden-221200386.html
12. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/postal-service-workers-not-a-priority-for-covid-19-shots/
13. https://www.nationalreview.com/news/postal-workers-exempt-from-new-vaccine-requirements-report/
14. https://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-history/hope-diamond.pdfhttps://theintercept.com/2022/10/31/social-media-disinformation-dhs/
The Dangerous Journey of the Mail in Ballot
- The Mail in Ballot begins at the printer. The risk begins here if there is an untrustworthy printing company that can print extra ballots and profit off them through a private sale. Counterfeit ballots can be made by private print companies. The printer can send a different list to the county than the one they send to the public.
- Voters also have access to update their address or someone else’s address, since there is no password required for this.
- The next step is to send out all the ballots in the mail. There is insufficient custody for this process. There is a risk of ballots being altered or switched. There are always more ballots than registered voters. Check the States data to get confirmation. These things can happen, a)delivered to the wrong voter b)forwarded and lost c) delivered to the wrong address. There is no way to confirm the ballot made it to the correct person. IF the ballot is filled out, we cannot confirm who received it and if it was illegally filled out by someone else, other than the intended.
- Because the State allows mail in ballots. It must also allow ballot harvesting. Because Postal Workers need to return a completed ballot. As a result, it leaves it open to bad actors. And anyone else to harvest ballots as well.
- Anyone can request a replacement ballot and then steal your ballot. Then ballots are returned either in a drop box or in the mail. Either way transportation has a few risks while traveling back to the Election Office with improper observation and security measures.
- Signature check points are the only security check against an illegal ballot. This system is admittedly online. No authentication is required for the ballots. Once the ballot is removed from the envelope and is unidentifiable. There can be a whole different style in there and no one would know.
- Ballots are scanned in and wait for signature verification. Voters have several signature samples on file for comparison. Voters opening ballots can violate voter secrecy laws. A whole different ballot style in there and no one would know. Ballots are scanned in and received and waiting signature verification. Some ballots may completely bypass this security step. ASV stands for auto signature verification and the computer can be programmed to bypass this security step.
- Ballots need to be properly stored and anyone could have access to them.
- Ballot duplication is one step where someone can manually alter the votes that can’t be scanned due to a problem.
- The Ballots are scanned for tabulation. This process starts well before election day. A digital image is captured of the ballot. If there is an issue with the markings on the ballot. The voter is not notified. The ballot image is reviewed by staff to try to confirm voter intent. The physical ballot goes into storage, never to be seen again.
- Machines are subject to vulnerabilities and manipulation.
- Audits and recounts can use ballot images in many cases.
- Once tabulated everything goes into storage for a while, than destroyed after 22 months.
- The whole process is missing transparency.
To summarize the risks in voting by mail are:
- Lack of Chain of Custody
- Inability to validate voters.
- And many interference opportunities because we do not know where the ballots are.
- There are many ways to cheat at Mail In Voting, these are just three.
