A Bay Area voter showed up to vote on Sunday night at a closed ballot center, just to discover its doors unlocked and the building unsecured.
San Mateo County voter Madelyn Webster wanted to vote in the June 2 governor’s race primary at Notre Dame de Namur University, but found no one there.
The voting center had closed an hour prior to her arrival at 6 p.m.
“We also checked the front door thinking maybe they’re taking a break in the front but that was locked. And then we called out again because there were restrooms there,” Webster said.
Webster wandered around the building for several minutes, believing it to be open with a vote banner hanging outside, but gave up and went home. She later sent an email to the county’s elections officer complaining about the center’s appearance of being open.
But the county told ABC7 the election center isn’t operated by them and that it’s the school staff’s job to lock the building and secure it. The elections officer said no election materials or related equipment were compromised.
“The matter was reviewed by our Vote Center and supervisory staff and confirmed that all ballots, voting equipment, and election materials remained secure and were not compromised,” they told ABC7.
San Mateo County Supervisor David Canepa, running for County Assessor, appeared concern about the election issues that the incident gives rise to.
“How did this happen? We need to understand how did this happen? And was this a one-off or has this happened before?” Canepa said.
Webster ended up getting in her ballot at the Belmont Police Station on Monday.
The unsecured election site comes after California deals with an election interference scandal, as a voting site was vandalized and burned mail-in ballots were found in a drop box.
The incidents, which officials described as isolated but serious, have sparked an investigation and renewed warnings that any attempt to interfere with the voting process will carry criminal penalties.
Election workers discovered vandalism Sunday morning at a vote center located at Cesar E. Chavez Park in Long Beach, according to the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s Office.
Officials said staff responded immediately and voting operations continued without interruption.
Voters will go to ballot booths statewide in California’s June 2 primary.
