Misplaced mail in a mail union election; feds intervene

Detroit — Misplaced ballots, protests, a lawsuit. The presidential election? No — an election to pick leaders of the Michigan mail handlers union.

The U.S. Labor Department is asking a federal judge to throw out the results of the February election. The government says more than 100 ballots were postmarked before the deadline but never opened and counted. The lawsuit says some envelopes were “intentionally misdirected.”

Glenn Berrien, the new president of Local 307, acknowledges some problems but disputes any allegation of intentional mischief. He says envelopes had the wrong post office box and weren’t properly delivered in time to be counted.

Berrien won by 33 votes. He has proposed counting all ballots and holding a new election only if that tally shows a different result.

The union has 1,000 members statewide.