Hennepin County says no evidence of tampering after vehicle full of ballots left unattended; courier fired
EDINA, Minn. — Hennepin County officials say there is no evidence of tampering after a photo was posted to social media showing an open, unattended vehicle full of ballots.
The photograph was taken outside Edina City Hall on Friday and shared by the Minnesota Senate District 50 GOP on X.
"Do these ballots look secure to you," the tweet said, garnering over 1,000 likes.
A spokesperson for Hennepin County said on Saturday that the county and courier have taken corrective actions to prevent a recurrence, and the driver has been terminated.
"Election security is of utmost importance, and leaving ballots unattended is simply unacceptable," Hennepin County Auditor Daniel Rogan said. "Hennepin County is reinforcing its transfer protocols with county staff and vendors. An incident like this underscores the value of strong chain-of-custody processes, so that risk can be addressed and integrity can be verified."
The county appears to have had other security protocols in place.
"Each of the boxes had a seal on it," University of Minnesota Professor Larry Jacobs said. "If the seal had been broken and someone had tried to tamper with the ballots, that would have been known and each voter would have been recontacted with their barcode at this happening."
Hennepin County reports all expected ballots have been accounted for and found no evidence of tampering with sealed transfer cases. Individual ballots were also inspected and staff determined all were received in sealed condition. Both inspections are routine election integrity processes.
The vehicle contained ballots that were picked up from other cities before coming to Edina, according to the city.
Additionally, Edina released surveillance footage of the parking lot at the time, showing the ballots inside the vehicle were not tampered with.
Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon issued a statement Monday, saying in part:
"This incident was totally unacceptable. The county has taken appropriate, swift, and transparent action to determine that no ballots were compromised and to ensure this will not happen again. The county has protocols in place for the delivery of signature envelopes, including security seals on the transfer cases, and verification that all signature envelopes remained sealed. The county has conducted a review to match the number of signature envelopes and verify that each individual ballot was accounted for and corresponded with the records in the State Voter Registration System."