A California man was caught stealing ballots during Arizona’s primary election. ABC-15 reported the story, stating that Richard Anthony Ramos Jr., 26, of Stockton, California allegedly stole mail-in ballots out of Post Office blue collection boxes, and the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office said he stole ballots that had not been filled out yet.
Cybersecurity expert Mark Cook, who runs the election integrity site Hand Count Road Show, posted his concern on X. “Harvested ballots. Professional mail thief,” he said. “Not isolated. Mail ballots are not safe. This is another reason we have an ELECTIONS NATIONAL STATE OF EMERGENCY.”
AZ Election Integrity, an account on X that closely follows wrongdoing in Arizona’s elections, stated that Ramos could have been preparing to vote the blank ballots. “According to AZ State Statute those allegedly stolen Drop Box unvoted ballots (per @abc15 News) found on July 21, 2026 could not have been remailed out after the fact & especially not on Election day none the less,” the account said. “The unvoted stolen mail in ballots also could have been illegally voted and dropped off at a ballot drop box on Election day.”
Ramos Jr. was arrested and charged with two counts of third-degree burglary and one count of aggravated identity theft. He accepted a plea deal for a class 6 felony of burglary tools and will receive supervised probation, AZCentral reported.
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