Authorities affirm no signs of meddling following unguarded mail ballots discovered near Minneapolis.
A snapshot of an employee's vehicle outside Edina City Hall, displaying an open trunk brimming with about a dozen cartons of ballots, went viral on social media platforms on Friday. Local Republican Party affiliates and Donald Trump supporters with substantial online audiences disseminated the image and utilized the instance to challenge the security of mail-in voting.
Hennepin County representatives, which encompasses Minneapolis and nearby suburb Edina, declared in a Friday statement that there was "no indication of tampering" during the time the ballots were unsupervised.
They uploaded an eighteen-minute clip to YouTube, showcasing that no one tampered with the ballots while they were unattended with an open trunk in the parking lot for around nine minutes.
The quickness with which Hennepin County issued multiple statements explaining the scenario, coupled with the surveillance footage, exhibits how election officials are striving to counteract the rapid spread of online misinformation that influences millions.
Hennepin County released another statement on Saturday, admitting that the situation did not adhere to the protocol for transporting ballots from drop boxes to the election office – and announcing that the employee had been terminated.
“Hennepin County acknowledges that this infraction in protocol transpired, should not have occurred, and is unacceptable. Appropriate actions have been taken by the county and its courier to avoid any recurrence,” the statement read. “The county has affirmed that the driver has been dismissed.”
Officials asserted that all the ballots in the cartons were fully "accounted for" and that there was "no indication of tampering" with the seals on the cartons. They further stated that all the individual ballots remained "in sealed form" – implying that no one attempted to open the ballots or alter anyone's vote.
“Election security is of paramount importance, and leaving ballots unattended is simply unacceptable,” Hennepin County Auditor Daniel Rogan said in a statement. “Hennepin County is reinforcing its transfer protocols with county staff and vendors. An incident such as this underlines the significance of robust chain-of-custody procedures, enabling risks to be tackled and integrity to be ensured.”
Specialists maintain that mail-in voting is secure, incorporating paper trails and redundant safeguards to thwart fraud, in spite of a multi-year campaign by Trump to undermine the process with unfounded allegations that it is tainted by widespread fraud.
The ballots in question weren't actually mailed but were deposited by voters at drop boxes for pick-up by election staff and delivery to election offices for processing.
Trump and Republicans mainly reject drop boxes, claiming they are prone to fraud or manipulation during the transfer process.
Although isolated incidents of fraud or misconduct have been affiliated with drop boxes, there isn't systemic vote-rigging through drop boxes or any other methods in US elections.
The drop boxes are locked and sometimes even chained to the ground, and in most jurisdictions they possess round-the-clock surveillance. There are stringent chain-of-custody guidelines for how these ballots are meant to be handled.
The controversial situation involving the ballots in Edina City Hall's parking lot sparked intense discussions in the realm of ['politics'], with both local parties and prominent figures using it to advocate for their positions on mail-in voting security.
Despite the multi-year campaign led by Donald Trump to question the integrity of mail-in voting, specialists continue to affirm that mail-in voting, including the use of drop boxes, is a secure process, incorporating various safeguards to prevent fraud.
