Sarpy County not looking to add cameras at ballot drop boxes

Election Commissioner Emily A. Ethington told the Papillion Times in an email that all six Sarpy County drop boxes are located in high-traffic areas and that many are already in the range of private security cameras.

“We also check our drop boxes every weekday during election time to ensure even greater ballot security,” Ethington said. “We have not had any issues with security or ballots being damaged while in a ballot drop box.”

The Douglas County Board of Commissioners approved spending $130,000 in federal pandemic recovery funds for video surveillance of voting drop boxes at its June 21 meeting. The funding covers the cost of a camera system for five years.

Douglas County Election Commissioner Brian Kruse said he hopes to have the surveillance system installed at the county’s 13 drop boxes in time for the November general election.

“I want to stress we haven’t had any problems,” Kruse told the board. “But in the event there’s a natural disaster, or an accident, or somebody is reporting an issue, it will just make the process a lot cleaner, a lot quicker to determine what’s going on. And we just feel like it’s always better to be proactive than reactive.”

Civic Nebraska, a nonprofit that advocates for voting rights, said through a spokesperson that it’s not aware of any ballots being damaged or destroyed in a drop box in Nebraska.

“The good news is that Nebraska drop boxes and the vote-by-mail system as a whole are extremely secure,” communications director Steve Smith said in an email. “Video surveillance of ballots can be a good-faith tool to deter ballot tampering, but it’s only one part of the security and safety equation.”

Civic Nebraska has advocated for uniform security standards for drop boxes. Smith said that robust record-keeping followed up by investigations of any deviations make voting by mail or drop box “one of the safest and most secure ways to cast a ballot.”