| | Did Florida election officials accidentally trash uncounted ballots?
 More than 3,000 ballots that went missing after a local primary election in Florida could have been inadvertently thrown out on election night, and there are calls for state officials to step in and take over elections operations in the chronically plagued Palm Beach County before November.
"Are the 3,478 missing ballots in a landfill? were they inadvertently thrown out by election officials who thought they were trash?" local anchor Tim Malloy asked in a Wednesday night broadcast. "NewsChannel 5 has exclusively learned that is the leading theory on officials' minds."
Malloy reports that officials at a Boynton Beach precinct may have placed bundles of uncounted ballots into nondescript black plastic trash bags before having them transported to the Palm Beach County Board of Elections. Ballots are supposed to be placed into zippered bags like those used for bank deposits and transported to the board offices in duffle bags, but precinct officials apparently ran out of the duffle bags.
"A reliable law enforcement source tells us it is believed the garbage bag was thrown out. mistaken for trash on a very busy night," Malloy reports. "It would adequately explain, our source says, the mystifying disappearance of thousands of ballots."
The ballots disappeared between the county's Aug. 26 primary and a recount the following weekend.
Three nonpartisan election integrity groups have asked the state to supervise Palm Beach County during the Nov. 4 presidential election. Florida continues to be one of the most closely fought states in the election, and its vote again could decide the presidential election this year.
WPTV Newschannel 5 has more details here.
This video is from WPTV Newschannel 5, broadcast September 11, 2008.
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