A San Mateo County voter who tried to cast her ballot at a voting center in Belmont over the weekend said that the location was left unattended, raising concerns over election security.
On Sunday evening, Madelyn Webster and her husband arrived at a voting location at Notre Dame de Namur University’s Taube Center to drop off her ballot before heading to dinner.
Signage for the voting center was outside, but when she walked into the building, she didn’t see anyone inside.
“We were very surprised to see that no one was there,” she said in an interview.
Equipment and tables were there, but the lights were off, said Webster. She called out a few times and rang a bell that was there for requesting assistance, but there was no response.
She decided to take a video of the empty voting center and shared the footage with county election officials. According to Webster, she later learned that the center had already closed for the day, yet she was able to walk in.
“We were concerned, first, that nobody was in there and the doors were unlocked,” she said. “The second concern was that there were election materials all over the tables.”
Jim Irizarry is the county’s assistant chief elections officer and assessor-county clerk-recorder. He said in an email that Notre Dame de Namur University is responsible for locking the building, and that no election materials were compromised or left unsecured.
According to Irizarry, the voting center closed at 5 p.m., before Webster arrived. Staff collected all ballots and transported them to “Elections Central” at the San Mateo County Registration and Elections Division office at 40 Tower Rd. in the city of San Mateo.
“No ballots remained at the facility after closing,” Irizarry said. “This is consistent with our standard operating procedures, which require that ballots be removed from every vote center and returned to Elections Central at the end of each day.”
In addition, Irizarry said that all voting machines and ballot-marking devices were secured with tamper-evident seals. Laptops, electronic poll books, and election supplies were secured in locked storage cabinets at the center, he said.
Official: Election materials secured
San Mateo County partners with several facilities and organizations to help open up voting centers that are accessible to the public during elections. Of the county’s 49 voting centers, only two are located in county-owned buildings.
Irizarry said that even if a voting center is accessible to the public after hours, election materials and equipment are secured.
“Vote centers are intentionally located in public-facing facilities to maximize voter access, while maintaining strict safeguards to protect ballots, voting equipment, and election materials at all times,” he said. “The fact that a facility remains accessible to the public outside of voting hours does not mean election materials are left unsecured.”
A spokesperson for Notre Dame de Namur University said in an email that it “is not responsible for the voting center” and that campus property management and security falls under CBRE, a commercial real estate company that provides property management services.
“Even if there is a reasonable explanation, voters should never be left wondering whether proper safeguards are in place.”
Supervisor David Canepa
Supervisor David Canepa, who is running in the Tuesday election against Irizarry to become the next chief elections officer, said that the empty voting center raises concerns over election security.
“Even if there is a reasonable explanation, voters should never be left wondering whether proper safeguards are in place,” Canepa said in a statement.
Both Canepa and Webster thought that in a time of heightened public concern over election security, having a voting center accessible to the public after hours may feed into those worries.
“With all the concern over fraud and stolen ballots, we want our votes to count,” Webster said. “Maybe they need to do more training, or maybe it’s probably just a one-off. I don’t know, but I hope that the polling centers and the voting centers are staffed properly and securely.”
