Nebraska Officials Debunk Viral Video Claiming Shows 'Election Mule'

LINCOLN, Neb. (WOWT) – The Lancaster County Election Commission is demanding an apology Monday, saying a conspiracy group is trying to undermine confidence in the security of this year's election.

The group posted a video of someone casting a ballot in Lincoln, referring to the person as a “voter” and circulating the images on social media.

6 News is not showing the video because there is no reason to continue spreading the lie. As of Saturday evening alone, it had been viewed 1.4 million times on the social platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

Someone sitting in his car Saturday afternoon filmed a person on a skateboard walking up to a ballot drop box outside a library in Lincoln and grabbing something from his backpack. The video's caption read, “BALLOT MULE CAUGHT ON CAMERA.”

One Ballot is a widely debunked conspiracy in which people secretly cast hundreds of fraudulent ballots in the middle of the night, and there have been online efforts for people across the country to organize and conduct surveillance at mailboxes for this election.

VOTER INFORMATION

Lancaster County's election commissioner says the real story goes like this: His team reviewed the mailbox's own security video and identified the voter when they picked up their ballot. The commissioner says he was a first-time voter and simply “took a selfie to commemorate this important milestone in his life.”

“It is shameful and un-American to intimidate and threaten anyone for exercising their right to vote,” the commissioner said. “You should remove the post and apologize immediately.”

The commissioner was so concerned about his safety after reading social media comments from those who wanted to harm the voter on the skateboard that he called the Lincoln Police Department and investigators reached out to the voter.

On Monday, 6 News reached out to Nebraska's top election official, Secretary of State Bob Evnen, to get his reaction to the situation.

“It's shameful what these people have done by spreading it on social media like this,” Evnen said. “Of course, the people who recorded this video did nothing to find out what it was about or to contact the Lancaster County elections commissioner. You have not contacted this office. They took what they had and put it up. The claims they make are false. This poor guy's picture was enlarged and posted on social media. It was a young man who voted for the first time and took a photo of himself. Now he is accused of being an election courier.”

Evnen said anyone who sees something concerning should report it to their county's elections office or the Secretary of State's elections division.

The original post of the video shared a response on social media and he did not apologize. Instead, he said, “It is a sign of our times that concerned citizens feel the need to keep an eye on every aspect of our electoral process.”

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