#Roommates, the 2020 presidential election may still be months away, but there have already been very alarming issues regarding voter tampering. A West Virginia postal worker has found himself facing jail time after pleading guilty to knowingly changing the party affiliations of local voters on a handful of absentee ballots.
According to @TheHill, Thomas Cooper, a postal worker in Pendleton County, West Virginia, recently pled guilty to one count of “Attempt to Defraud the Residents of West Virginia of a Fair Election” and one count of “Injury to the Mail” after he was found to have altered absentee ballot requests by using a black pen.
The Department of Justice confirmed that Cooper did indeed change five ballot requests from local voters from Democrat to Republican. Fortunately, the change was caught by the Pendleton County clerk, who knew the voters personally and knew they were not registered Republicans. Following that realization, the clerk then alerted the West Virginia Secretary of State’s office, which began an in-depth investigation.
During his court proceedings when he was asked why he tampered with voter ballots, Cooper said, “[I did it] as a joke. [I] don’t even know them.” Cooper’s attorney, Scott Curnutte, recently spoke on his client’s behalf and suggested that what he did wasn’t as extreme as being reported.
Curnutte said:
“He is deeply sorry for the implications for our democratic process. It should be remembered, however, that the mail he altered were requests for ballots, not ballots themselves.”
Cooper is currently facing up to eight years in prison and is likely to lose his job as a postal worker.
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