A box containing hundreds of ballots from Miami-Dade County was discovered on the side of Florida’s Turnpike after reportedly falling from an unsecured county truck.
The alarming event, confirmed by the Miami-Dade Elections Department, occurred late Monday night, prompting immediate concerns over election security.
Dashcam footage and cellphone videos captured by concerned citizens reveal the containers strewn across the roadway at Exit 11, near Cutler Bay.
The footage shows the clearly labeled parcels, complete with county barcodes and tracking paperwork meant for managing paper ballots.
A vigilant driver who stumbled upon the abandoned ballots took it upon himself to deliver the items directly to a county police station.
WATCH:
Last night, an individual came across a box full of ballots and other documents on exit 11 of the Turnpike, at the intersection of 211th St. in Cutler Bay. He immediately picked them up and took them to the police station, where they have been properly secured. No information yet… pic.twitter.com/HQP6glsm9b
— ONLY in DADE (@ONLYinDADE) October 29, 2024
Christina White, the county’s elections supervisor, stated that the mishap was due to a failure on the part of the county worker responsible for transporting the ballots, according to the Miami Herald.
“The worker forgot to lock the back of the truck and as they drove off, one sealed bin and one sealed bag fell out,” Christina White said on Tuesday.
White maintained that both containers were sealed upon inspection and that no tampering had occurred, asserting that the ballots had already been scanned and counted.
“Upon arrival at the police department, Election staff verified all seals were intact and nothing was tampered with or damaged,” White told Miami Herald.
“Thankfully, this was observed in real time by upstanding citizens who did the right thing and turned the bin and bag into the police department,” White said.
White quickly announced the dismissal of the employee responsible, stating, “While unintentional, the Elections Department has zero tolerance for error and therefore the employee was terminated.”