Somerset will have additional election day security after video of ballots goes viral

Somerset Board of Selectman Chairman Jamison Souza told the “Somerset Sentinel” that there will be additional security measures in place on election day after a video of ballots being passed off to a poll worker in their car has gone viral.

The video, which was obtained through a public records request, was taken by town security cameras on Primary Day this past September. In the video, a female, believed to be the assistant town clerk, hands a stack of ballots to a poll worker who is seated alone in her vehicle. It is believed that the ballots were transported to the local high school, which is the only voting location in the town, to be processed.

The video has been viewed more than 2 million times on X, formerly Twitter, with many comments from viewers who have concerns for ballot security and election integrity. Some comments on the video have people calling for the removal of the clerk and even jail time for those who mishandled the ballots.

But according to Souza, he said he spoke with the town clerk Caitlin Hadala who said “proper protocols were followed when the assistant town clerk handled the ballots to the registrar.” Souza told the Sentinel’s George Austin that due to the comments and misinformation put on social media about what happened, certain security measures have needed to be added for the elections.

Paul Healey, a Somerset resident and member of the Somerset Republican Town Committee, went to the Somerset Town Hall last week for what the town clerk called “Testing of Election Equipment”. After observing the process for approximately an hour and a half, Healey sent an email to Hadala with questions and concerns he had about the town voting process, some of which included the chain of custody of SDI cards, if the voting machines were connected to WiFi and if the counting of mail-in ballots was under video surveillance.

No details on what the additional security measures will be on election day.