Hundreds of unopened ballots found near dumpster sparking concerns over Washington's mail-in voting system

A box containing hundreds of unopened Washington state ballots was reportedly discovered on the ground next to a dumpster behind a strip mall in Renton, raising serious questions about ballot handling and election security. 

Washington State Republican Party Chairman Jim Walsh said a concerned citizen brought the ballots to the GOP’s Bellevue headquarters after finding them discarded. “Earlier today, a concerned citizen contacted me and came and dropped off at the Bellevue headquarters a large box of ballots, Washington State ballots, specifically King County elections ballots, that were mailed to people and never received,” Walsh said in a video posted to Facebook.

According to Walsh, who made the video while sitting behind the stacks of ballots in the state GOP office in Bellevue, the individual discovered the ballots after noticing a suspicious box near a dumpster. “The concerned individual… found these ballots in a box on the ground next to a dumpster behind a strip mall in Renton,” he said.

Walsh described the contents as “hundreds of ballots,” spanning multiple election cycles. “He looked in the box, saw it was ballots—hundreds of ballots, many from the 2024 general election, but others from 2025, 2023, 2022, basically multiple Washington elections between 2022 and 2025,” Walsh said.

The ballots were reportedly addressed to voters who use private mailbox services, meaning they may not have been delivered directly to individuals. “When a ballot is mailed to a voter in this state… that ballot is supposed to either be delivered to the voter or returned… to King County elections. That didn’t happen here,” Walsh said.
 
He suggested the ballots may have been stored somewhere before being discarded. “These ballots must have ended up in a room somewhere, or a warehouse, or a back room somewhere… and then put in a box and thrown away like trash. Ballots are not trash,” he said.

Walsh said the individual who found the ballots attempted to alert authorities before contacting him. “He called first King County elections… no response, no interest. Then he called the state secretary of state… no interest, no response. Then he called his federal congress member… no interest, no response. Then he reached out to me,” Walsh said.

Walsh argued the discovery highlights broader concerns with Washington’s vote-by-mail system. “This is proof that in Washington state, we need to do better to improve the security and integrity of our mail-in voting system,” he said.

“This is proof of the broken chain of custody that makes secure elections impossible in Washington state.” He also pointed to voter registration records as a contributing factor, arguing that outdated voter rolls can result in ballots being sent to individuals who do not retrieve them. “If we update it and make sure that the names on that mailing list… are current and accurate, this is less likely to happen,” Walsh said.

The discovery comes as the Washington State Republican Party promotes Initiative IP26-500, a proposal that would require proof of citizenship when registering to vote. Walsh said reforms like the initiative are needed to address vulnerabilities exposed by incidents like this.

“This is very troubling. It’s not supposed to happen like this,” he said.

State and county election officials, however, claimed in statements to local media that they have no record of the incident being reported through official channels and emphasized that safeguards remain in place, including signature verification and ballot tracking systems.