RICHMOND, Calif. (KRON) – Officials are investigating after some ballots went missing.
Officials with the Contra Costa County elections office say dozens of ballots placed in a drop-box at Richmond City Hall have not been found.
The missing ballots have raised some concerns about mail-in voting.
Election officials say they’re trying their best to get to find these ballots but so far have come up empty-handed.
They’re also trying to figure out how this happened and what could be done to stop it from happening again.
From this election drop box in Richmond dozens of ballots have gone missing. Voters used the drop off on October 12th.
Some ballots were received while others were not. Now it’s unclear what happened to those missing ballots.
“Stuff always happens and this is a thing where we don’t know exactly what happened yet,” Scott Konopasek said.
Scott Konopasek, the Assistant Registrar of Voters in Contra Costa County says they were made aware of the missing ballots through complaints on social media.
The office worked quickly to correct the problem but do not believe the box nor the ballots were tampered with.
“There’s no evidence of that happening at all,” Konopasek said.
Konopasek says 4-two person teams collect the ballots from the county’s 37 drop boxes twice a day.
He understands that in today’s political climate there have been attempts to undermine the credibility of mail-in voting but assures voters there’s no reason for concern.
The city of Richmond echoed those thoughts in a statement reading in part:
“The county election’s division is aware of the information regarding ballot theft being reported on social media and have no reason to believe it is true; however, they take these reports seriously.”
Ways on how to keep the boxes and ballots safe are right now being considered but konopasek says of the 150,000 plus ballots received so far, this was the first time there was trouble.
“I really think this is a success story due in large part to the fact that the voters voted early and were very conscientious to track their ballot all the way through,” Konopasek said.
Those voters who have had their ballots misplaced have been given new ballots and the option to vote again but Konopasek says the system will not accept two votes from one person.