Elections Canada refutes 'inaccurate' video claimed to show ballots mishandled

"I Caught Elections Workers Taking VOTES HOME," says the title on an April 27, 2025 video on YouTube.

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Screenshot from YouTube taken April 28, 2025

The nearly 30-minute video from "MCGA," a conservative channel that boasts more than 53,000 subscribers and appears to reference US President Donald Trump's "Make America Great Again" slogan, racked up over 145,000 views as Canadians voted April 28.

A record 7.3 million people cast ballots during advance voting, in a race that has come down to Prime Minister Mark Carney's Liberals and Pierre Poilievre's Conservatives. 

The clip opens with the channel's owner, who introduces himself as Spencer, claiming that he was outside an elections office in Hamilton, Ontario on April 25 when he "observed five people leaving the office with ballot boxes."

Spencer filmed them loading up their cars and continued recording as he followed one of them home and confronted him.

"Not only is there no secure chain of custody, but again, the ballots are filled out with pencil," Spencer says, alluding to misleading online claims that ballots are at risk of being changed or erased because polling places are mandated to provide pencils (archived here).

He also includes a separate recording in which he spoke over the phone with several employees of Elections Canada, one of whom explained the procedures and safeguards for handling ballot boxes that have been sealed with votes cast before election day.

Across platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and X, users shared the recording taken outside the elections office alongside claims it showed fraud or malfeasance. 

"MCGA busted Election Canada workers taking home ballot boxes again in violation to the chain of custody rules," one Instagram post says.

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Screenshot from Instagram taken April 28, 2025

"This is proof the election is rigged and the Liberals are behind the fraud," another post on Facebook claims. "Any voter box can be replaced with another box, and so can the election ballots, as voter cards are marked only in pencil."

But the video does not show election workers mishandling Canadians' votes, Elections Canada said.

Boxes did not contain filled-out ballots

In an April 28 thread on X addressing the MCGA video, the agency cautioned viewers not to "believe everything you see."

"There is a video being shared online, along with some inaccurate information," Elections Canada wrote (archived here). "The ballot boxes in the video are not full of marked ballots; they contain the materials needed to set up the polls for election day."

The thread explained that officials "use empty ballot boxes to transport the materials needed to set up the polls on election day" and that "ballot boxes that contain marked ballots are properly secured with an official seal that is signed by election workers, in front of witnesses" (archived here and here).

The agency replied with similar clarifications to several users who asked about the video -- and also in response to the MCGA channel's X account (archived here, here, here and here).

Elections Canada told AFP in an April 28 email that the supplies required to prepare polling locations for election day include signage, feedback forms and activity logs.

The agency said deputy returning officers or central poll supervisors pick these materials up ahead of time from the local elections office, where such materials are held.

"They bring it home if they do not have access to the polling ahead of time, since some polling places are only leased for one day," the agency told AFP. "The empty ballot boxes can be used to transport the materials."

In the extended footage on the MCGA channel, the person Spencer followed home and questioned said of the box: "It's empty." The man then said he had to bring the box home so he could take it to a polling place on election day.

Ballot box safeguards

Ballot boxes that do contain votes from advance polling locations are protected by multiple safeguards until results are tallied on election day, Elections Canada told AFP.

The "ElectoFacts" page on the agency's website says that after each day of advance polls, the deputy returning officer, or DRO, seals the ballot box slot and signs the seal alongside any party or candidate representatives present to prevent tampering (archived here). The sides of each box are also sealed.

The boxes must remain sealed and in secure locations at all times, and the handover of boxes must always be logged, the website says.

"In between advance polls and the counting of the ballots on election day, ballot boxes are either kept in a secure place at the returning office or kept in the custody of the DRO," it adds.

Destroying or otherwise interfering with a ballot box or its enclosed votes is illegal under the Canada Elections Act. Those who violate federal election laws may face fines and even jail time (archived here). 

"Election officials pledge an oath that they will not tamper with election materials or cast votes, and they sign an official record log at the local Elections Canada office when they receive the unmarked ballot booklets," Elections Canada said in its email.

AFP has debunked other misinformation about Canada's elections here.