Open trunk full of election ballots left unattended in Edina parking lot
[Updated: driver fired.]
The parking lot was, in fact, a handicapped parking space in front of City Hall. The “courier” was stopping by to pick up more absentee ballots en route to the central Hennepin County counting center.
The Twitter (X) account for the local branch of the Republican party posted the photo Friday at noon:
Take a box, leave a box. If you look closely at the box at the bottom, right, it is unsealed. There are more than enough ballots in that trunk to swing a close race, even at a statewide level.
In the first 48 hours, that original post has received more than 400,000 views.
The City posted this nonresponse response five hours later.
“In sealed condition”? Obviously, not. The County initially posted a longer response, but no more illuminating for its added length. The door wasn’t “ajar,” the back was wide open to the public. No apology, nothing indicating that the authorities attribute any significance to this event. That original County statement is no longer available, but it can be read here.
The County posted some security video on YouTube, showing the vehicle in question, partially obscured by a tree branch. As the trunk lid remains open and the vehicle unattended, cars and pedestrians pass by.
Had those boxes and their contents represented evidence in a court proceeding, they would have been inadmissible for lack of a chain of custody.
Despite both the City and County issuing multiple statements, there was zero local legacy media coverage of the incident for the first day and a half.
Early on Saturday, our own John Hinderaker mentioned the incident on PowerLine. AlphaNews wrote a piece and sent out a post on Twitter (X) time-stamped at 2:12 pm.
Hennepin County issued a second statement on Saturday, this one with a more apologetic tone. The County announced that the worker was fired:
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 has confirmed the driver has been terminated.
The second statement was covered in a national CNN story posted at 4:25 pm Saturday afternoon.
Oblivious, KARE-11 put out a story at 10:13 Saturday morning, under the headline:
Wave of absentee ballots under lock and key
Obviously not.
In time for the late news Saturday night, both KSTP-TV (8:58 pm) and FOX 9-TV (9:21 pm) put out stories. At 10:35 am Sunday morning, KARE-11 TV put out a piece. At 2 pm Sunday afternoon, WCCO checked in. And finally, at 8:49 pm Sunday night, the Minnesota Star Tribune posted a story.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in Hennepin County, the City of Minneapolis is holding “one-time” “one-day” “pop-up” in-person voting locations around the city. The sites open beginning Tuesday, October 22 and run through November 1.
Services include:
For your convenience, two of the eleven locations are on Cedar Avenue.
And hours include Halloween!