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Ballot Box Stolen Outside Thermal CA Polling Place

By Thad Hall

So here is a great story about election security and the ephemeral nature of all ballots, but especially paper ones.

Deputies are looking for the men responsible for stealing a ballot box from an election worker who was about to drive the box to the Indio Courthouse Tuesday night.

According to authorities, the victim said four or five men riding in a white Ford Thunderbird drove up to the victim's vehicle as she was about to load her trunk with the ballot box just outside at the Jerry Rummonds Memorial Youth Center in the 87-200 block of Church St. around 9:45 p.m. News Channel 3 has learned that some 123 ballots were in the stolen box.

By the way, this is why lever machines have historically been seen as good by election officials; they weigh a ton and are hard to steal.

Also, I talked to an election official here in Utah who noted that if that happened here and someone stole the vote cartridges, where we use DREs, they would download the votes directly from the voting machines. Also, the thief would have to steal the paper trails too, which are in a different sealed bag.

Full post as published by Election Updates on February 06, 2008 (boomark / email).