Rep. Randy Fine caught sifting through voter’s mailbox while canvassing

Rep. Randy Fine, Florida Republican, was caught on a homeowner’s doorbell camera opening a stranger’s mailbox and flipping through the contents while canvassing ahead of Tuesday’s Republican primary, according to a TMZ report.

The Ring camera footage, timestamped Sunday at 4:55 p.m. ET, shows Mr. Fine ringing the doorbell of a home in Florida’s 6th Congressional District and waiting on the porch before lifting the lid of a mailbox mounted on the wall and sifting through envelopes inside. Mr. Fine’s office confirmed to TMZ that it is indeed him in the video.

TMZ reported that Mr. Fine is not shown removing, tampering with or inserting anything into the mailbox. Federal law is less clear-cut than that framing suggests. Under 18 U.S.C. § 1702, taking mail from an authorized depository before delivery with intent to obstruct correspondence or “pry into the business or secrets of another,” or opening or secreting such mail, is a federal crime. A separate statute, 18 U.S.C. § 1708, criminalizes stealing or taking mail from a letter box or mail receptacle. Whether either statute would apply here would turn on facts the video alone doesn’t establish, including Mr. Fine’s intent, whether he took or opened anything, and whether the mail had already been delivered. 

The footage drew swift backlash online. Barbie Harden Hall, a former Democratic congressional candidate, wrote on X that Mr. Fine was a “menace to basic human decency.” Jacob Ogles, a journalist who covers Florida’s congressional delegation, wrote on X that a rival campaign had told him going through a mailbox is “a federal crime.” Susan Acevedo, a California political strategist, argued on X that merely handling someone else’s mail could be illegal and urged her followers to contact law enforcement, according to Raw Story.