A San Diego County ballot drop box remained sitting on a roadside more than a week after Election Day, sparking alarm among locals who worry their votes were not properly collected.
The official ballot box was still standing Friday on Hilton Head Road near the entrance to Hilton Head County Park in Rancho San Diego, days after the June 2 election had wrapped up.
One resident, Stephanie Melaney, said she was stunned to see the box apparently untouched when she first noticed it Thursday.
“To me, it was actually very alarming that there’s a ballot box still here this length of time, and it’s not been picked up,” Melaney told CBS.
Her biggest concern was whether voters who used the drop box could be certain their ballots had been collected.
“If somebody in the neighborhood put a ballot in here, do they have any assurance that it was picked up, or it’s still just sitting there,” she said.
The concern prompted a response from the San Diego County Registrar of Voters, which insisted the ballots had been secured on election night.
According to the office, the drop box was available for use from May 5 through June 2 and was locked at 8 p.m. on Election Day. Election workers then retrieved all ballots from the box that same evening, a spokesperson said.
Officials stressed that the container itself was empty and locked, even though it remained in place for days afterward.
The Registrar’s Office said temporary drop boxes installed at county parks are typically removed between elections but are secured with heavy-duty chains and anchored to concrete pads or other immovable fixtures to prevent theft or tampering.
Election officials added that it is not unusual for some boxes to remain at their locations for a period after voting ends and said the Rancho San Diego box was scheduled to be removed Friday afternoon.
Melaney, however, said she believes the box should have disappeared much sooner.
“It should have been picked up on June 2 in the evening,” she said.
She also questioned whether the location — near a park entrance rather than a heavily trafficked public building — was ideal.
The Registrar’s Office defended the placement, saying the design and location of all county drop boxes comply with accessibility requirements and security standards.
The same drop box site is expected to return ahead of San Diego County’s Nov. 3 general election.
