Agents Found 394 Political Mailers in a Kansas Mail Carrier’s Garage. Not One Was for a Democrat

While Kansans were at the polls Tuesday, a federal grand jury in Wichita indicted a rural mail carrier who, prosecutors say, never delivered thousands of pieces of mail on her route. What stands out is what was in the pile.

According to the indictment, agents from the Postal Service’s Office of Inspector General went to the home of Kelly R. Cram on Oct. 7 and found about 4,404 pieces of mail in her garage. Roughly 394 were political mailers, “all related to Republican candidates or Republican Party affiliated political action committees.”

Then the line that has the story moving on Election Day: “The agents found no political mail related to candidates of any other political party or any political action committees affiliated with another political party at Cram’s residence.”

Who she is

Cram, 59, of Baxter Springs, worked as a rural route carrier out of the post office in Pittsburg, in the southeast corner of the state. The indictment says she had been with the Postal Service since May 23, 2009, and was put on administrative leave the same day agents searched her home.

She faces one count of unlawful secretion, destruction and delay of mail, a felony that carries up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. The indictment says the conduct began “on a date unknown” and ran through Oct. 7, so it does not say how long the mail had been piling up.

Cram has not entered a plea, and the charge is an accusation, not a conviction. The indictment does not allege a motive or say why only Republican pieces turned up. According to court records cited by The Wichita Eagle, she has been summoned to appear before U.S. Magistrate Judge Gwynne Birzer in Wichita on Nov. 18.

Why the timing matters

The mail was found less than four weeks before an election with a lot on the line in Kansas: an open governor’s race between Republican Senate President Ty Masterson and Democrat Cindy Holscher, Sen. Roger Marshall’s reelection fight against Democrat Adam Hamilton, and all four U.S. House seats.

Campaigns lean on mailers to reach rural voters, and Cram’s route ran through that kind of country. The indictment doesn’t say which campaigns the mailers came from or how many households were on the route.

What comes next

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew R. Erb under U.S. Attorney Ryan A. Kriegshauser, and the inspector general’s office is still investigating. The indictment does not say whether any of the recovered mail has since reached the people it was addressed to.