Setting It Level · Viral Post Fact Check ·
Ballots discovered in dumpster at Golden Gardens.
What We Found
The report is accurate. King County Elections confirmed that two bins of mail containing 92 undelivered ballots were found in a dumpster at Golden Gardens Park in Seattle. News outlets reported it Oct. 22-23, 2026.
It was handled. A voter called the county to report it, staff went to the park and recovered the ballots, and replacement ballots were already reissued to the affected voters. The county reported it to the U.S. Postal Service, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service is investigating.
Context: the ballots were undelivered, so none had been used for voting. The county says mail theft happens in every big election, and law enforcement tells them ballots are typically not the target; these were left behind. How the bins ended up in the dumpster is still under investigation.
Safeguards: the county verifies every returned ballot's signature and checks whether the voter has already returned one. County chief of staff Kendall Hodson said that even if someone tried to vote these ballots, they would be rejected. Seattle police checked 26 other trash bins in two parking lots and found no more ballots.
Sources
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