Millions of Americans are approaching this year’s midterm elections with more vigilance after the questions that were raised around the nation in 2020 about election security amid COVID-19 “emergency” measures, many of which are still in place. A report on some tweets posted from Los Angeles on Tuesday indicates voting security is still being taken lightly, at least in California.
The Twitter account “Street People of Los Angeles” posted a video and report of a voter in Woodland Hills who found a set of keys left behind in the lock to a ballot drop box when she went to deposit her ballot. She called to report the situation and an hour later saw the keys had not been removed.
The registrar office asked the voter to take the keys out and bring them into the library. “Safe and secure” while “saving democracy” is how we do it here in Los Angeles
— STREET PEOPLE OF LOS ANGELES (@streetpeopleLA) November 1, 2022
The voter eventually received a reply from the L.A. County Registrar-Recorder’s office that asked her to remove the keys and drop them in the library book drop box near where the ballot drop box was located. She was told to do so because the librarian on duty would not be present until noon.
The Twitter account posted in response to the report: “‘Safe and secure’ while ‘saving democracy’ is how we do it here in Los Angeles.”
No official explanation of the left-behind keys has been provided. It appears that the person or persons responsible for taking ballots from the dropbox just walked away leaving the lock and box not only insecure but with what is likely a master key left in the lock.
When a responsible citizen alerted the officials responsible for securing the county’s elections, she was told an hour later it was her job to hand the keys over to a librarian, who is also apparently a responsible party in charge of election security.
Public reports of the sort of gross incompetence shown by L.A. County election officials only serve to further undermine the dwindling confidence citizens have in the authenticity of elections in many parts of the country. From mail-in balloting errors to questionable voting machinery to dropboxes left completely insecure, the questionable reports stack up day after day.
With the next election now only a week away, conservative Americans can only vote and hope for the best once again. Citizens can then turn their attention to enacting meaningful election security laws and policies at local, state, and federal levels.
