A U.S. postal worker in Utah is facing federal charges after allegedly throwing away 300 mail-in ballots into a parking lot garbage shortly before the state’s June 23 primary election, according to the U.S. Justice Department. Damon Matai Seei, a 34-year-old mail carrier, told investigators he did not have a political motive and also discarded other mail at the same time, according to Melissa Holyoak, U.S. attorney for the District of Utah. In Utah, where approximately 95% of voters use mail-in ballots, it remains unclear whether those ballots were ultimately counted. A government memo stated that Seei claimed he wanted to discard advertisements to "lighten his workload" after feeling overwhelmed. "He claims he simply made a 'poor decision' out of 'frustration' and 'laziness,'" the memo said. He did not intend to discard any ballots, according to the report. Seei is no longer employed by the U.S. Postal Service and pleaded not guilty Tuesday to a charge of destruction and delay of mail. The Trump administration has focused on investigating voter fraud—though it is rare—as part of its broader agenda. President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed, without evidence, that noncitizens are voting in large numbers and has sought to limit mail-in voting. However, the Supreme Court recently declined to allow the president’s mail-in restrictions to be enforced. Trump has made false claims about winning both the 2020 and 2016 presidential elections. Despite significant efforts during his second term to obtain voter registration records to check for noncitizen voters, the Justice Department has struggled to bring cases showing significant voter fraud. So far, the department has charged 70 voter-fraud-related cases. Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter said more cases are in progress but did not provide further details or a timeline. “Under the leadership of President Trump and Attorney General Blanche, this department is committed to protecting the vote of American citizens,” he said. The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division is expanding a long-standing election monitoring program, with a new focus on "ballot security." The division has also hired conservative personnel to replace many longtime career employees who have left since Trump returned to office. However, the division’s efforts to obtain voter rolls have faced legal challenges, with 25 courts ruling against the federal government. Voting rights experts note that while isolated cases of fraud and issues with voting machines do occur, they have not reached a scale that could have altered the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, which was won by Democrat Joe Biden. Nevertheless, the materials released by the Justice Department may support Trump’s broader claims about election integrity. With a majority of voters disapproving of Trump’s presidency and believing his policies have hurt the economy, Republicans face a challenging political landscape heading into the midterms. Earlier this month, the Justice Department announced five new voting-related cases, four of which involved non-citizens. Last week, the department also announced that 16 individuals had been charged in election-related cases, with at least ten of them being lawful permanent residents of the U.S. The defendants came from countries including Mexico, Nigeria, India, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Antigua and Barbuda, Venezuela, Columbia, and Russia. One defendant, Victoria Viktorivna Aquilina, a 42-year-old Russian national who entered the U.S. as an au pair in her early 20s, was charged with voting in the 2024 election. Trump, who was facing federal criminal charges related to his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss before he won the 2024 election, had previously called for Republicans to "nationalize the voting." Meanwhile, Democrats have launched an "unprecedented" effort to prevent disruptions to the 2026 election. Seei’s next court date is scheduled for Nov. 30. His federal public defender has not yet responded to requests for comment.