Nicholas Beauchene is the New Jersey mail carrier who is accused of discarding 99 mail-in ballots in October 2020.
The U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, Craig Carpenito, said in a press release that Beauchene, 26, was accused of one count of delay, secretion, or detention of mail and one count of obstruction of mail. In total, Beauchene is accused of discarding around 1,875 pieces of mail between October 2 and October 5. The discarded mail was designated for the towns of Orange and West Orange, west of Newark in New Jersey. The attorney’s office said that the mail has been placed back into circulation for delivery.
If convicted on all charges, Beauchene could face up to five years in prison and fines of up to $255,000.
Online records show that in the 2016 presidential election, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton defeated President Donald Trump by 9,298 votes to 421 in Orange and by 16,757 to 5,201 in West Orange.
Local Politicians Are Angry Over the Post Office’s Lack of Transparency Over the Alleged Discarding of Ballots
On October 5, the New Jersey Globe, a website founded by Jared Kushner-ally Ken Kurson, according to Politico, first reported on the missing mail in Orange and West Orange on October 5. West Orange Mayor Robert Parisi told the Globe, “We haven’t heard from the post office yet. I think we should have heard about this from the post office and not from the media.” The website’s article quoted multiple officials from the area expressing anger about the lack of transparency from the post office over the missing mail.
Harold Dinger, a man who found some of the mail that was allegedly discarded by Beauchene, told CBS New York, “To have that all go in the trash like that was, in my mind, really ridiculous. The ballots are the ballots. The election is the election. It is what it is. But these people have legal notices and checks and God knows what they’re expecting.” Another man who said that his election ballot was among the discarded mail, said that he has since received his ballot through the mail.
Heavy Could Find No Evidence of Political Bias or Activism on Beauchene’s Facebook Page
According to his LinkedIn page, Beauchene formerly worked as a maintenance worker at a retirement community in Whiting, New Jersey. On his Facebook page, Beauchene lists Kearny, New Jersey as his hometown and says that he is a graduate of Kearny High School. During his time in high school, Beauchene was a baseball prodigy. His coach, Frank Bifulco, told The Kearny Observer in 2012, “He’s the kind of kid that you know exactly how he feels. He wears his emotions on his sleeve. He doesn’t like losing and he lets you know it. He wants to perform so well all the time.” Bifulco also said, “Nick is always going to be Nick. He marches to his own drummer.” According to the article, Beauchene was being courted by Caldwell College and New Jersey City University.
Beauchene was married in March 2020 and has one child with his wife. A search of Beauchene and his wife’s Facebook page by Heavy showed no political posts that were publicly viewable and no posts relating to either President Donald Trump or Vice President Joe Biden. There was no motive for Beauchene’s alleged crimes listed in his criminal complaint.
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