OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — The Douglas County Election Commission decided to add a second type of seal to the midday ballot boxes to make it obvious if someone tampers with a box of ballots.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Kevin Sweeney was a poll worker in 2022. He says at the time, he saw another worker remove the seal to insert a midday vote count into the box. Sweeney says he was worried about the possibility of tampering as election site workers drove boxes of ballots to collection sites.
"It makes absolutely no sense to have all this security at the polling location and at the counting center and have absolutely zero security in between," Sweeney said.
Sweeney says he brought these concerns to officials.
"I mean it just invites ballot tampering," Sweeney said.
I asked Douglas County Election Commissioner Brian Kruse about these claims. He says based on post-election audits there was no tampering.
Kruse and the commission heard the concerns of poll workers and made some changes for the 2024 election, including using a different type of tape to make it obvious if someone has tampered with a box.
In 2022, there was only this white seal on the midday boxes.
This year for both the primary and next week’s election, there will be two seals placed on the midday box.
"This if you try to remove this, from anything, part of it stays on the box and part of it comes off," Kruse said.
Reporter Molly Hudson tested out the new tape.
"We would know it from midday if this has been tampered with, would know it in the evening if the seals have been tampered with and we know the individual who brought those back and absolutely we would prosecute you," Kruse said.
"Why is there only one person in that car," Sweeney asked.
Kruse says that based on state statute, the inspector is allowed to transport the ballots alone.
After the midday count, the metal ballot box is secured with this seal, and ballots will continue going into the other side of this box until 8 p.m. or all voters are taken care of.
"The poll workers will just simply close that, they latch this, like so, and they take their other seal, and they put it on this side," Kruse explained.
From there, the entire box is taken back to the office and workers will cut the seals for the votes to be counted.
