Photo by Jim Small | Arizona Mirror
Phoenix police have arrested a 35-year-old for allegedly setting fire to a United States Postal Service mailbox in Phoenix early Thursday morning, damaging several ballots dropped in the box, ahead of the November election.
Police arrested Dieter Klofkorn on an unrelated warrant, and said in a press release that, during an interview, he admitted to setting the fire in a mailbox at the Osborn Post Office near the intersection of 7th Avenue and Indian School Road. Klofkorn told police that his actions were not politically motivated, and that he set the fire so he would be arrested and taken to jail, according to police.
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.
He has a history of being unhoused, according to previous reporting from ABC 15.
Klofkorn has been convicted of multiple crimes over the past several years in Maricopa County Superior Court, as well as Phoenix and Scottsdale municipal courts, including indecent exposure, theft and trespassing, according to online court records. Following several of his convictions, Klofkorn repeatedly violated the terms of his probation, which could also get him sent to jail.
“Any attack that strikes at our democratic process carries criminal consequences,” Secretary of State Adrian Fontes said in a written statement. “Ballot abuse is a felony in Arizona, and mailbox vandalism is a federal crime.”
Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer said in a statement that his office is waiting on details from law enforcement about the condition of ballots that were contained in the mailbox at the time of the fire.
“We encourage all voters who used that mailbox in the last 36 hours to check the status of their ballots at https://BeBallotReady.Vote,” Richer said in the statement. “Successful delivery is usually reflected on that website within 72 hours. Voters should be aware that tomorrow, October 25 is the last day to request a replacement ballot. If a voter believes they were impacted by this incident they can learn more about how to make that request at https://Request.Maricopa.Vote.”
Ballots that were inside the mailbox but were undamaged will be treated normally, according to the Recorder’s Office. If elections officials can discern who any damaged ballots belong to, they will contact that voter.
“Thanks to the swift response coordinated between election officials, law enforcement, and the postal service, we were able to recover many undamaged ballots and affected voters will be contacted to make sure they’re able to cast a vote,” Fontes said in a statement.
Fontes added that ballot drop boxes across the state have been outfitted with security measures “to prevent and detect physical attacks.”
YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE.