I work at an early voting station. The way the system works here is that every party has their own ballots. You vote by picking a ballot for the party of your choice, put it in a sealed envelope, and hand it to an election worker who will let you watch them put it in the urn.
There’s a more involved process for early voting, but that’s not the point of this story.
One afternoon, there’s not much going on, so my fellow election workers and I try to keep ourselves busy. We sharpen pencils, make sure everything is nice and tidy in the voting booths, we re-fill ballots that are running low.
A gentleman walks in and announces he wants to vote. I direct him to one of the voting booths to fill in his ballot. He walks up to one of them and spends a moment there, but then seems to change his mind and moves on to the next booth. I don’t think much of it at first – the booths are different heights so maybe he thought the first one was uncomfortable or something?
A new group of voters come into the room and I’m explaining the process to them when the man comes out from the second booth.
Man: “Where are the ballots for [Party]?”
Me: “In the ballot stand with all the others.”
Man: “There aren’t any ballots in here. You threw them away, didn’t you? This is election fraud! I’m going to put it on the internet!”
Me: “Actually…”
Man: *Turning to the group of voters waiting for their turn.* “Do you see how the country works these days? They’re all cheaters and frauds!”
Me: “Please quiet down. I personally re-filled all the ballots just before you got here. The only person who has been in those booths since then is you.”
Man: “But… I mean…”
Me: “So would you like me to put out new ballots again, or would you prefer to use the ones in your pocket?”
The man sputters but can’t come up with a good answer. Instead, he walks out, bulging pockets and all. I replace the ballots he took (there were plenty to spare) and go about my day.
However, the story doesn’t end there. The same evening, I’m checking Facebook, and in one of the local groups (you know the kind I’m talking about), I see a photo of a trash can full of (party) ballots. The poster is claiming this as ‘proof’ that the election workers are throwing out ballots to make it impossible to vote for (party). The post already has a few angry comments on it.
I’m debating with myself how to proceed to ensure this doesn’t spin out of control when another comment pops up.
Commenter: “Hi, [Man’s Name], are those the same ballots you stole from the voting station earlier today? I was there when the election worker caught you in the act.”
The post was very quickly removed, but thankfully not before I was able to screenshot it to give my supervisors for documentation.
No official complaint of election fraud was ever reported. That is, by the way, what you’re *supposed* to do if you’re ever a witness to that sort of thing instead of ‘putting it on the internet’.
