A letter carrier could be in serious trouble after allegedly dumping ballot guides in a recycling bin in Berkeley.

Thursday afternoon, federal inspectors told NBC Bay Area that they have identified the person responsible but cannot release his or her name yet, as it is an ongoing investigation.

The U.S. Postal Service Office of the Inspector General launched the investigation last week after a Berkeley man found 96 ballot guides in a recycling bin on the 1600 block of Walnut St. on October 12.

“I was astonished, and I thought pretty quickly that this is not right. They looked pristine, stacked and had just been bound,” said Scott Wheeler, who was looking for egg cartons to donate to his neighbors, who sell farm-fresh eggs.

Wheeler pulled the guides out of the bin before the recycling truck arrived, brought them to his apartment and called authorities. He says this incident, coupled with another voting snafu the previous week when he was deactivated as a voter because U.S.P.S. thought he no longer lived there, signifies a problem with either the post office or the Alameda County Registrar of Voters.

“It’s just a coincidence – serendipitous – that I was the guy who found the voter guides and one of the guys dumped off the voter rolls,” Wheeler said. Read more