A video on social media depicting two postal workers collecting ballots after Election Day in California is not evidence of voter fraud, officials said.
The Los Angeles County Registrar Recorder’s Office clarified the situation Wednesday on Twitter, saying the ballots in the video are “legally cast ballots collected and processed by authorized election officials.”
Boxes in Los Angeles County were available to receive ballots from Oct. 5 until Nov. 3, closing at 8 p.m., the office wrote, adding that the ballots were collected the following day and counted during the post-election canvass.
The Drop Boxes are closed and locked at 8PM on Election Night and then collected the following day. These are valid ballots processed and counted during the post election canvass. Local certification in CA is on Nov 30.
— Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk (@LACountyRRCC) November 11, 2020
The video circulated widely on social media with thousands of people claiming the footage is evidence of voter fraud.
A woman is seen confronting two postal workers collecting mail-in ballots from a drop box, questioning the men why the state was already called when they are still collecting ballots the next day.
“Are you guys collecting ballots? I thought they’ve collected them all,” the woman can be heard saying as she approaches the two individuals.
She continues to question the postal workers in disbelief, asking them if they are “official election guys.” The worker who is stuffing the ballots into bags secured by zippers then shows his identification card around his neck and says he works for the county.
“Where [do] you guys take them?” she asks the worker, who replies the ballots are going to the election center.
Under California law, voters can mail ballots as late as Election Day. Election officials must count those ballots as long as they have a Nov. 3 postmark and arrive within 17 days of the election.
Shortly after polls closed in California on Election Day, a slew of media outlets declared Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden the winner of the state’s 55 electoral votes. On Nov. 7, the Biden/Harris campaign and many networks declared him president-elect.
Nobody is officially declared the winner of the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Therefore, NTD has decided that the most responsible approach is to wait until all results are certified and all legal challenges are resolved before we announce a winner.
In light of the tight results of the presidential race in some states, many social media users have alleged that voter fraud has skewed the tallies. But some of the examples circulated online have turned out to tell a different story than they initially appear to.
The campaign for President Donald Trump said it has collected evidence of thousands of improperly cast votes, including some Trump supporters’ votes. It has also complained that its poll watchers were prevented from meaningfully observing vote counting in some states. The campaign has filed lawsuits in multiple states to address the issues.
Epoch Times reporter Petr Svab and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
