Florida Early Voting Ballots Fall Off Unlocked Truck, Found by Passing

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A passing driver found two containers of already-completed ballots on a Florida road after an election worker reportedly forgot to lock the back of the truck that was carrying them, according to a spokesperson for the Miami-Dade County Elections Department, who noted that the employee has been fired.

A video shared on social media by citizen journalism group Only in Dade shows the two containers—a blue box and bag—strewn on a road near Florida’s Turnpike in Cutler Bay on Oct. 28. The footage shows the unidentified driver stopping to pick them up and later taking them to a local police station.

Elections staff retrieved the box and bag from the Miami-Dade Police Department and verified that all seals were intact and that nothing had been tampered with or damaged, Ivan Castro, elections media manager at the Miami-Dade County Elections Department, told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement.

“The incident that occurred was due to human error,” Castro said. “The worker forgot to lock the back of the truck and as they drove off, one sealed bin and one sealed bag fell out, containing already voted ballots from early voting.”

It’s unclear how many ballots were in the bin and bag, which the workers brought back to the elections headquarters, where the seals were checked once again.

“While unintentional, the Elections Department has zero tolerance for error, and therefore, the employee was terminated,” Castro said while thanking the “upstanding residents who did the right thing” by bringing the ballots to the police station.

This is not the first time that issues have occurred with early voting ballots during the current election cycle.

Two fires at ballot drop boxes in Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver, Washington, prompted police responses on Oct. 28, with one blaze potentially destroying hundreds of ballots. Police believe the two incidents are connected and that the fires were set deliberately.

Portland Police Bureau Assistant Chief Amanda McMillan told reporters that “acts like this are targeted and they’re intentional” and that police are dedicated to stopping behavior that attempts to affect the election process.

Both incidents are under police investigation, with the FBI conducting its own probes.

Election officials in both states said they are taking additional security measures and urged voters to remain vigilant and report suspicious activity involving ballot boxes.

Police in Arizona have arrested a suspect after a fire was set to a U.S. Postal Service mailbox in Phoenix, damaging at least 20 mail-in ballots.

In another incident, a Florida postal worker was criminally charged after allegedly dumping more than 1,000 pieces of mail in a wooded lot in Orlando, including more than 400 pieces of political mail and at least one election ballot.

Burglars in California broke into two U.S. Post Office locations in Sacramento County, stealing ballots, laptop computers, and other mail.

More than 50 million Americans have already voted in the 2024 election, according to the University of Florida Election Lab tally, including more than 26.5 million in-person early votes and 23.8 million mail-in ballots.