PALM BEACH COUNTY, FL -- Are the 3,478 missing ballots inside of a landfill?
Were they inadvertently thrown out by elections officials who thought they were trash?
NewsChannel 5 has exclusively learned that is the leading theory on officials' minds.
We've learned that the ballots in question, likely came from a precinct in Boynton Beach.
They were collected, as all the ballots in the county were, and the put in zippered bank-like bags.
For safety they are then loaded into duffel bags for delivery to the board of elections.
We've learned that at this particular precinct elections workers ‘ran out’ of duffel bags, and black plastic garbage bags were instead used.
Our sources tell us a sheriff’s deputy assigned to deliver the ballots shuttled the plastic bag, or bags, with the ballots in them to the Board of Elections and handed them over.
His job was done and the ballots were safely delivered.
What happened next is under investigation, but a reliable law enforcement source tells us it is believed the garbage bag was thrown out, mistaken for trash on a very busy night.
It would, according to our source, adequately explain the mystifying disappearance of the thousands of ballots.
Election and law enforcement personnel are backtracking to the Boynton Beach precinct in question to reconstruct what might have been a simple mistake that has led to recriminations from Tallahassee and vows to shake up the Supervisor of Elections.
By 10:20 a.m. Thursday, WPTV.com had been in touch with the office of the Supervisor of Elections and Palm Beach County officials, who are all looking further into our reported information.
