A Minnesota poll courier has been fired after leaving thousands of ballots unattended in an open car trunk outside Edina City Hall, southwest of Minneapolis.
The incident happened on Friday as the worker was dropping off boxes of ballots, and a photo of the trunk with the unsecured boxes spread on social media.
Supporters of former President Donald Trump and local Republican Party leaders shared the image, questioning the safety of mail-in voting, but Hennepin County officials said there was “no evidence of tampering.”
Officials posted Edina City Hall surveillance footage showing that no one interfered with the ballots during the approximately nine minutes that they were unattended.
County officials acted quickly to release statements explaining what had happened as they fight online disinformation about the safety of elections.
“Hennepin County acknowledges that this lapse in protocol occurred, should not have happened, and is unacceptable. Corrective actions have been taken by the county and its courier to prevent any recurrence,” the county said on Saturday. “The county has confirmed the driver has been terminated.”
Officials added that all the ballots were “accounted for” and that they remained in their “sealed condition.”
Hennepin County Auditor Daniel Rogan said in a statement that “leaving ballots unattended is simply unacceptable.”
“Hennepin County is reinforcing its transfer protocols with county staff and vendors,” he added. “An incident like this underscores the value of strong chain-of-custody processes, so that risk can be addressed and integrity can be verified.”
Trump has made false claims for years that mail-in voting is rife with fraud despite experts saying that the voting method is secure, employing paper trails and duplicative safeguards.
The ballots left in the vehicle were dropped off by voters in dropboxes, CNN noted, from where they’re collected by election workers and transported to offices to be processed. Trump and many Republicans oppose the use of dropboxes, arguing that they could be subject to fraud and manipulation.
There have been a small number of incidents but there’s no evidence of widespread fraud using dropboxes or any other voting method.
In most places, dropboxes have 24/7 surveillance, they’re locked, and sometimes chained to the ground.
The car in question had been used to pick up ballots in other cities before taking them to Edina, the city said.
