A 35-year-old Sacramento County letter carrier is facing federal charges after investigators say he withheld and delayed hundreds of pieces of political mail meant for voters on his assigned route, just as Californians headed to the polls for Tuesday's general election. Antoine Rashad Polite worked as a letter carrier for the U.S. Postal Service in Sacramento County and now stands accused of delaying and obstructing delivery of U.S. mail.
According to Action News Now, court documents dated Sept. 23 allege Polite withheld and delayed hundreds of pieces of political mail intended for residents along his route. Postal management first found roughly 493 pieces of political mail stashed in an area designated for undeliverable bulk business mail, the outlet reported. Many of those pieces had addresses marked as vacant or undeliverable, but postal officials determined the marked addresses were in fact valid and deliverable, and the report states the 493 pieces carried valid, deliverable addresses on Polite's route.
Thousand-Piece Mail Cache Uncovered
Investigators did not stop there. The same report notes they later found an additional 527 pieces of political mail that had not been delivered, discovered inside undeliverable-mail containers and in Polite's assigned postal vehicle. Combined, the two discoveries total more than 1,000 pieces of withheld political mail. The outlet's report indicates the withheld material included campaign materials for candidates and ballot propositions on the California general-election ballot, mail meant to reach residents ahead of Tuesday's vote.
Postal officials recovered and delivered the vast majority of the mail to its intended recipients, the station's report states. The case was investigated by the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Khasigian is prosecuting it. Eric Grant said a Sacramento postal worker faced federal charges for allegedly withholding hundreds of pieces of political mail before the November election, according to the same account.
Penalties and Presumption of Innocence
If convicted, Polite faces up to six months in prison for obstruction of mail and up to one year for delay or destruction of mail, the report notes. The charges against Polite remain allegations, and he is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. The federal statutes cited in the case fall under the U.S. Code's postal service chapter, which lists offenses including obstruction of mails generally, obstruction of correspondence, and delay or destruction of mail or newspapers, according to the U.S. Code, House of Representatives.
Not the Only Mail-Tampering Case This Election Cycle
Polite's case joins a string of similar allegations against postal workers nationwide this election season. In Utah, a USPS letter carrier was accused of discarding more than 300 mail ballots meant for voters in the state's June primary, allegedly dumping them along with other mail into a dumpster in a church parking lot in Eagle Mountain, according to The Associated Press.
A New Jersey case shows these prosecutions do not always end in conviction. Postal employee Lenora M. Swiecicki was accused of discarding roughly 300 campaign mailers supporting Rep. Tom Kean Jr. during the 2024 congressional election, but federal prosecutors dismissed the charge without prejudice under a pretrial diversion agreement on Nov. 25, 2025, per the New Jersey Globe. Separately, a Sacramento mail theft investigation involving mail taken from a postal vehicle has raised questions about whether election ballots may have been among the stolen items, KCRA reported.
