WASHINGTON — A D.C. voter says he's concerned his vote may not count after some trouble at an official mail-in ballot dropbox on Tuesday, Primary Day in the District.
Darryl Pugh, Sr. says he came to drop off three ballots at Pennsylvania Avenue and Branch Avenue in Ward 7 at about 7:45 p.m. When he got there, he says an elections worker had already collected the ballots and locked the drop box, about 15 minutes before the 8 p.m. deadline.
The voter captured his interaction with someone who identified themselves as an elections worker. The video shows what appears to be a misunderstanding about what time to close the ballot box.
"He came here he closed the bag up at 7:45, but it doesn't close until 8 o'clock, that's a fact," Pugh says on the video. "So, we got a problem, son. We got a major problem."
Over the course of the five-minute video, three more voters walk up to the box hoping to drop ballots off. The video shows the voters handing their ballots to the elections worker. The worker then gets on the phone with a supervisor to discuss the situation. The worker appears to get instructions on the phone to pop the seal on the bag and place the ballots inside.
The worker told Pugh he was going to deliver the ballots to the Board of Elections.
Monica Evans, BOE executive director thanked all the excellent election workers and volunteers for their hard work but told WUSA9 it was the first time the election worker was assigned to that particular position.
"He got a little ahead of himself, moved quickly and arrived as directed at 7:45, but locked the ballot box," Evans explained. "It's not a good look and we take full responsibility."
Evans confirmed the five ballots in question from that ballot box in the Penn-Branch shopping center in Ward 7 were processed. It was among the 6,000 ballots the election workers were counting at the warehouse Wednesday.
"There's gotta be some rules and checkpoints in place for the upcoming fall election because it's going to be a tight one," Pugh said.
"We have policies and protocols in place and those policies in place to ensure integrity in the election process, but we also have safeguards even though the process wasn't followed to a T, there was a measure in place to still get those ballots and ensure they were safe," she explained.
That safety measure included an armed DC Police officer who escorts the election worker to the warehouse until the ballots are safely submitted inside.
As of Wednesday evening, the Ward 7 race is still too close to call. Evans said mail-in ballots will continue to be counted until June 14 if they are postmarked by Primary Day. So, she said it is likely we may not have a clear winner in Ward 7 until then. If there is a margin of 1%, there will be an automatic recount at no cost to taxpayers.
The last time election officials said a council race was not decided on Primary day was 1995. Eydie Whittington won the Ward 8 council seat after a recount and by one single vote.
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