A Sacramento letter carrier has been charged in federal court with delaying and obstructing the delivery of United States mail, in a case prosecutors say involved more than 1,000 pieces of political campaign mail that never reached voters on his route in the weeks before California's November 3, 2026 general election.

Source: U.S. Department of Justice — U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of California

The United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of California announced that a federal criminal complaint has been filed charging Antoine Rashad Polite, 35, of Sacramento, with delaying and obstructing the delivery of U.S. mail. The announcement was made by U.S. Attorney Eric Grant. The charges are allegations only, and Polite is presumed innocent until and unless he is proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

According to court documents cited by prosecutors, Polite was employed as a letter carrier by the U.S. Postal Service in Sacramento County and was responsible for delivering mail along an assigned route. Between September 23, 2026, and October 27, 2026, he allegedly improperly withheld and delayed the delivery of hundreds of pieces of political mail intended for residents on that route.

How investigators say the mail was found

The investigation began after postal management discovered approximately 493 pieces of political mail that had been placed in an area designated for undeliverable bulk business mail — even though, prosecutors say, the mail bore valid, deliverable addresses located on Polite's route.

Investigators later identified an additional 527 pieces of political mail that had not been delivered. Those pieces were found in undeliverable mail containers and inside Polite's assigned postal vehicle. Many of the pieces had their addresses marked through and were labeled with notations indicating they were vacant or undeliverable, even though postal officials determined the addresses were valid and deliverable.

Campaign mail for the November 3 ballot

According to the complaint, the withheld mail included campaign materials relating to candidates and ballot propositions appearing on the November 3, 2026, California general election ballot — the election being held today. Postal officials ultimately recovered and delivered the vast majority of the mail to its intended recipients, prosecutors said.

Why this matters in California

California mails a ballot to every active registered voter, and in the weeks before an election the mail is one of the main channels through which campaigns and ballot-measure committees reach voters — including voters deciding how to fill in those mail ballots at home. Election officials have repeatedly advised late voters this cycle to return ballots by drop box or in person rather than risk postal delays. The case also lands one day after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a Justice Department bid to force California to set aside roughly 20,000 mail ballots the administration said were tied to likely noncitizens — a separate dispute, but one that has kept California's mail voting under national scrutiny this week.

Sacramento County is the state capital region and one of the Central Valley communities where many Punjabi-American families live and work, including truck drivers who are on the road for long stretches and rely on mail ballots and campaign mail sent to their home addresses. Mail that sits undelivered in the final weeks of a campaign can mean a household never sees candidate and proposition information before its ballot is due back by the close of polls today.

What happens next

The case was investigated by the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General, the Postal Service's independent watchdog, and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Khasigian. If convicted, Polite faces a maximum statutory penalty of six months in prison for obstruction of mail and one year in prison for delay or destruction of mail; any actual sentence would be set by the court after consideration of the federal Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. The Justice Department announcement did not list a first court date, and the case will now move through the federal court in Sacramento.