ATLANTA — Mail thieves are stealing absentee ballots, but they are not trying to steal your vote.
November 28 is the deadline to request an absentee ballot for the Senate runoff election.
Channel 2 Action News has learned that some of those ballots are landing in the hands of thieves stealing mail searching for checks and personal information to steal identities.
In a photo posted to dark web marketplaces just days before the 2022 general election that mail thieves call a “crop photo” and use to brag about their heists, Channel 2 Investigative Reporter Justin Gray spotted absentee ballots in the haul.
“Financial harm is definitely there, but now we’re talking about potential harm to the core of our democracy,” said Georgia State University criminologist David Maimon. His research team found the images on the dark web.
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In a series of investigations this Fall, Channel 2 showed you how thieves are targeting the mail.
In September, Gray found checks mailed in metro Atlanta for sale on the dark web.
Earlier this month, we reported how thieves are targeting mail carriers to steal arrow keys, the master keys to many mailboxes.
A Freedom of Information Act request uncovered 232 attacks on postal carriers just here in the Atlanta division in the past two years.
They want to steal your identity, not your vote. The absentee ballots are likely just tossed in the trash.
“The mail ballots are not the target of this type of crime. The targets are the checks and the identities,” Maimon said.
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State election officials say this is why you should track your ballot.
With Georgia Ballot Trax, you can sign up to receive notifications every step of the absentee process.
Election officials say they cannot control the U.S. postal service.
“It’s always a concern but these are things up to the US postal service to police against. But one of the safest things you can do is vote in person,” said Georgia Secretary of State Chief Operating Officer Gabriel Sterling.
U.S. Senator from Ohio Sherrod Brown sent USPS a letter demanding postal police resume patrolling postal routes.
That is something a Channel 2 investigation found has not happened since a 2020 policy change.
“Occasionally they (absentee ballot thefts) are going to happen in a country of 300 million people, but it’s happened way too often because of a Postmaster General that won’t listen to public input,” Brown said.
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For months now, the USPS has not answered our questions about security because of “security concerns.”
The secretary of state’s office says the simplest way to avoid mail theft with your ballot is to vote in person.
You or a member of your household can also drop off your absentee ballot at an election office or election drop box.
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