A sealed box and bag containing hundreds of Florida early voting ballots fell from a Miami-Dade County truck Monday night, according to the county’s elections department.

Miami-Dade election officials said Tuesday that the incident occurred due to “human error” when the driver failed to lock the back of the truck he was driving. The employee was later fired. Neighborhood residents found the ballot papers and ballot boxes and took them to the police. Officials confirmed that “all items were accounted for.”

“The worker forgot to lock the back of the truck and as he drove off, a sealed box and a sealed bag containing pre-voted ballots fell out,” the Miami-Dade Elections Department said in a statement Tuesday. he said. “The elections department has zero tolerance for error, even if unintentional, and that is why the employee was terminated.”

Ballots were collected from a road near Florida’s Turnpike in Cutler Bay on Monday night, according to a video posted by Only in Dade on X (formerly Dade). excitement.

“Last night, a person came across a box full of ballots and other documents at exit 11 of the Turnpike, at the intersection of 211th Street in Cutler Bay,” the citizen journalism group said. “He immediately picked them up and took them to the police station where they were properly secured.”

In the video, the driver is seen approaching a blue box and bag scattered on the highway after passing traffic lights. He pulls over, picks them up, and realizes what the items are with the “official election materials” seal.

“How are the people in the middle of the street?” The man asks in the video.

The man shows a photo of the police report filed Oct. 28 at the Miami-Dade Police Department’s Fourth Precinct Station. The man said he was “not trying to get anyone in trouble.”

“I want to thank you for being so honest and doing a good community service,” a woman in the police department said in the video. “We really appreciate that.”

The Miami-Dade County Elections Department also thanked “honest residents who did the right thing.”

news week Reached via email Tuesday afternoon Donald Trump And Kamala Harris presidential campaigns for comment.

This isn’t the first time this election cycle has seen problems with early voting.

On Monday police confirmed there was a fire Several ballot boxes were destroyed inside a ballot box at the Fisher’s Landing Transit Center in Vancouver, Washington. Images shared online captured dark smoke billowing from a ballot box near Southeast 162nd Street shortly after 6 a.m.

The Clark County Auditor’s Office said there were hundreds of ballots in the ballot box, the last of which was collected by election workers Sunday morning.

Voters who cast ballots after this time are asked to contact the Clark County Elections Office for guidance.

Colombian Earlier this month, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives responded to a separate incident involving a suspicious device found near a ballot box on Esther Street in downtown Vancouver.

Similarly, an incendiary device was used to start a fire at a ballot box in Portland, according to police. According to police, the bomb squad was positioned inside the ballot box to start the fire, after which the bomb squad declared the area safe.

In another incident last week in Phoenix, Authorities reported that the fire at a US Postal Service station destroyed about five ballots and damaged other ballots. This incident highlights ongoing vulnerabilities in ballot security as states continue to grapple with the complexities of voting by mail.

This is a developing news story that will be updated with more information.