Torrance Police in California are investigating alongside the U.S. Postal Service and the Los Angeles County District Attorney Public Integrity Unit to determine how and why a convicted felon had over 300 vote-by-mail ballots for California’s recall election in his vehicle.
The police department reported earlier this month the ballots were found alongside fraudulent California driver’s licenses and credit cards, multiple types of drugs, and a loaded firearm.
The felon was found passed out in his vehicle in front of a 7-11 parking lot, Torrance Police confirmed.
Those individuals whose names were on the ballots were sent brand new recall ballots so they could re-vote ahead of the September 14 special election to determine whether California will recall Gov. Gavin Newsom. The California governor is facing a recall due to his highly unpopular coronavirus restrictions that were among some of the most tyrannical in the country.
“Investigators are trying to figure out how the election ballots ended up in the suspect’s vehicle and what their intent was in having them,” Torrance Police said in a statement. “In the meantime, those who were identified through this investigation will be receiving a new election ballot.”
Sgt. Mark Ponegalek of the Torrance Police Department issued a statement to KABC with more information regarding the recall ballots.
“The election ballots, they were un-tampered with, unopened, a little over 300 of them found, primarily from addresses in Lawndale,” Ponegalek said. “There were some from Compton. We’re still trying to figure out where all these belonged to at this time so we’re working with the Los Angeles [county] election office as well as the U.S. Postal Inspector.”
The suspect, who has not yet been publicly identified, has been arrested on multiple narcotics, weapons, and forgery charges.
Although the investigation is still ongoing, the Los Angeles county registrar’s office insists this case shows “nothing to indicate” this was meant to influence the recall election results. Torrance Police continues to work with other law enforcement agencies to investigate the reason and purpose the felon had these ballots illegally in his vehicle.
Coincidentally, this incident occurred the exact same day absentee ballots were mailed out to California voters for the upcoming recall election.
Although it appears this was an isolated incident, news of stolen mail-in ballots does little to alleviate the general public’s fears and doubts surrounding the possibility of voter fraud occurring in the recall election.