Mass. officials step up security at ballot drop boxes to ensure every vote counts

CAMBRIDGE, MASS. (WHDH) - With the general election just days away, state leaders are stepping up security at ballot drop boxes to make sure every vote counts.

United States Attorney Andrew Lelling said his office is monitoring the polls.

“What we’re obviously most worried about are organized efforts to distort the vote, either by mislabeling or destroying ballots,” he said. “We haven’t seen evidence of that but that’s what we’re most worried about.”

Lelling added that the COVID-19 pandemic has opened up the possibility of ballot tampering because voters have many different ways to cast their votes.

“Because there are more variables in how people vote, they’re not going to set polling places, there’s a longer period to vote, yes, the risk has definitely increased,” he continued.

Each community has taken its own steps to assure that all ballots get counted.

In Cambridge, drop boxes are being locked up at 8 p.m. and in Arlington, security cameras have been added to their drop boxes.

There will also be an FBI command post set up to analyze information that could interfere with the election.

In the meantime, voting advocates say people should have confidence their vote will count.

“I think it’s important that we don’t get lost on these negatives,” Alex Psilakis of MassVOTE said. “We should look at the positives. More than 1.7 million people have already voted, more than a million of those by mail; more than 600,000 voted now, early, in person.”

This story originally appeared on WHDH. Check it out here!