West Virginia mail carrier changed Democratic ballot requests to Republican ones 'as a joke': Prosecutors

A mail carrier in West Virginia has been charged with attempting to defraud an election after authorities say he switched Democratic absentee ballot requests to Republican ones.

Thomas Cooper, 47, was charged Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia for the alleged crime. In an affidavit, investigator Bennie Cogar said that last month Cooper delivered eight mail-in requests for absentee ballots to the Pendleton County clerk.

The investigators found that five of those were altered to request Republican instead of Democratic ballots using what appeared to be a black pen, West Virginia MetroNews reported on Tuesday.

“Had Cooper’s conduct not been detected, it would have caused the Clerk to give Republican ballots to 5 Democrat voters — skewing the primary election by 5 votes and thereby defrauding all West Virginians of a fair election,” Cogar said in the affidavit.

Cogar said that when Cooper was confronted with the crime, he admitted to changing some of the requests from the Onega post office and when asked if he was “just being silly,” Cooper responded that he did so “as a joke” and didn’t “even know” the voters.

West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said that voter fraud is no joke.

“Manipulating one’s absentee ballot or application is not a laughing matter ⁠— it’s a federal offense,” Morrisey said in a statement. “It is more important now than ever for voters to watch for unexplained or suspicious marks and/or any other irregularity with their ballot. If something looks suspicious, let us know right away.”

The news comes amid a larger national battle over mail-in voting. President Trump has frequently waded into the controversy. On Tuesday, Trump attacked Twitter after it added a fact-checking label to two of his tweets where he claimed mail-in ballots will lead to voter fraud.

“@Twitter is now interfering in the 2020 Presidential Election. They are saying my statement on Mail-In Ballots, which will lead to massive corruption and fraud, is incorrect, based on fact-checking by Fake News CNN and the Amazon Washington Post,” Trump said. “Twitter is completely stifling FREE SPEECH, and I, as President, will not allow it to happen!”