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Fact check: False claim of shredded ballots in New Jersey's Gloucester County

McKenzie Sadeghi   | Paste BN

The claim: Blank and shredded ballots were discovered outside the Gloucester County Board of Elections office

Baseless claims of voter fraud, stolen votes and shredded ballots resurfaced on social media following New Jersey’s gubernatorial race, in which Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy won reelection against Republican challenger Jack Ciattarelli. 

A Nov. 3 Facebook post shared in the group “Political Correctness Gone Wild” purports to show shredded and blank ballots in trash bins outside an office in New Jersey’s Gloucester County. 

“Breaking News out of West Deptford NJ: Trash bins discovered outside the Gloucester County Board Of Elections containing blank ballots as well as bags of shredded ballots from Tuesday’s election!” the user captioned the post, which accumulated more than 1,600 shares in less than a week. “Local Police, the Sheriff’s office and Project Veritas reporters responded!”

Accompanying the text are numerous videos and images that show green trash bins containing shredded documents, which a narrator in the video claimed were “clearly” mail-in ballots based on the yellow, green and white colors of the papers. 

But the Gloucester County Clerk’s office said the video shows outdated envelopes related to the 2021 primary election, outdated instruction materials and spoiled ballots, which were all “discarded in accordance with the law.” 

Fact check: Vote adjustment in New Jersey due to mail-in ballots, not voter fraud

The Facebook user did not return a request for comment. 

Videos do not show shredded ballots

New Jersey state law requires election officials to keep ballots of various types for at least two years. Officials said that law was followed in Gloucester County.

In response to the social media posts, the office of the Gloucester County Clerk released a statement saying that certain “individuals were incorrectly claiming election fraud” and the materials seen in the containers “were not viable for any electoral use.” 

The statement said the documents included outdated reply mail envelopes from the 2021 primary election, boxes of outdated instructional inserts on how to fill out a vote by mail ballot, a bag of shredded green envelopes from undeliverable 2021 election ballots and spoiled, unusuable ballots brought in by constituents for replacement.

The items, which were placed by staff members into sealed boxes and put into recycling containers on Nov. 3,  had “no viable election use and were discarded in accordance with the law,” according to the statement.

Fact check: Incumbent Democrat won New Jersey gubernatorial race, not Republican opponent

There has been no evidence of widespread voting fraud in New Jersey's gubernatorial election. Paste BN recently debunked false claims that 40,000 votes were "stolen" from Ciattarelli and that the Republican won the election. 

Our rating: False

Based on our research we rate FALSE the claim that blank and shredded ballots were discovered outside the Gloucester County Board of Elections office. The Gloucester County Clerk's office said the video shows spoiled ballots and outdated instructional and business reply envelopes related to the 2021 primary election. The items were legally discarded and had no viable electoral use.

Our fact-check sources: 

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