A criminal investigation is underway into how 18 envelopes containing early-voting ballots ended up in a field in Glendale blocks from where the registered voters lived, the Arizona Attorney General’s Office announced Tuesday.
Brayan Ruiz contacted the Glendale Police Department after he recovered the sealed envelopes while working at a Rovey Farms site Friday afternoon. He told investigators the mail was laying on the ground “covered with concrete rocks.”
Ruiz’s action allowed Glendale officers and special agents with the Arizona Attorney General’s Office to hand-deliver the ballots Saturday to the intended recipients who live in an unincorporated area near Glendale. Most of the voters would have had to stand in line on Election Day to cast provisional ballots had the ballots mailed to them Oct. 7 by the Maricopa County Recorder not showed up.
Glendale Officer Tiffany Ngalula said the AGO’s Election Integrity Unit (EIU) is heading the investigation. There has been a string of mailbox thefts in the area, but it’s unclear whether the AGO has confirmed that the ballots were taken out of mailboxes or if the ballots were waylaid before being delivered.
In a video released by Glendale PD, Ruiz described finding the yellow-colored envelopes at a worksite near West Glendale and North 99th Avenues. The envelopes were not tested for fingerprints because the mail had been touched by several people before authorities were called in, according to Ngalula.
The video also shows investigators returning some of the ballots to voters who live several blocks to the northeast.
Last month the AGO advised local law enforcement agencies to call the EIU’s hotline about potential criminal activity related to election or voting matters. Investigators have not yet determined a motive for why someone would steal the ballots only to discard them, according to Tuesday’s announcement.
No arrest has been made as of press time. Anyone with information about the discarded ballots found in Glendale is asked to submit a tip to www.azag.gov/complaints/election or via email to EIU@azag.gov.
