Republicans discovered unprotected votes in the back of a van last week, prompting Minnesota election authorities to fire a ballot courier.
On October 18, a man saw a Hennepin County courier car with the back door open while strolling through the Edina City Hall parking lot. There were perhaps a dozen boxes with unprotected ballots in the rear of the van.
“This is precisely what cannot occur.”
The unsecured ballots were left out in the parking lot for about ten minutes, according to surveillance footage.
The witness who took the picture of the unprotected votes expressed his worries about a fair election to KSTP-TV, saying, “This is exactly what can’t happen.”
Officials from Hennepin County acknowledged a “lapse in protocol” in a statement issued the day after the witness saw the ballots.
“The rule for moving ballots is they are to be safe at all times and the County has informed its courier of this incident,” said county authorities. “This protocol violation happened, shouldn’t have happened, and is unacceptable, as acknowledged by Hennepin County. To avoid a recurrence, the county and its courier have taken corrective steps.”
Additionally, the election worker who left the ballots unguarded was fired by officials.
Hennepin County officials examined the unprotected ballots due to the security breach and concluded that they were all still valid.
The statement clarified:
“Hennepin County has discovered no indication of tampering with sealed transfer cases and concluded that all anticipated ballots have been accounted for. This is accomplished by comparing the ballots that were sent by courier with the list of all absentee ballots that cities have accepted in the Statewide Voter Registration System. The comparison showed a perfect match. Every transfer involves this step, which is standard procedure in the ballot integrity process.”
The absentee ballot envelopes in the cases were found to have been received in sealed condition after county employees examined individual ballots. Additionally, this check is a standard procedure for voting integrity.
The incident, on the other hand, “was totally unacceptable,” according to Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon (D), who nevertheless described it as a “teachable moment.”
