A Hennepin County courier has been fired after general election ballots were seemingly left in the open trunk of an unattended vehicle parked in Edina on Friday.

A photo of the ballot transport van, with ballots visible in the open rear hatch, was posted on Friday to X, formerly Twitter, by the Minnesota GOP-affiliated account SD50MNGOP.

“This incident was totally unacceptable,” Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon said in a Monday press release in response to the incident.

On Saturday, the day after the ballots were left unattended, the City of Edina released security footage of the van outside Edina City Hall to show that nobody seemed to tamper with the ballots during the 10-minute time period that they were left unmonitored.

Hennepin County released a statement on Saturday acknowledging that the “lapse in protocol should not have happened,” and confirming that the driver has been fired. The county said in its statement that after an inspection, it was determined none of the ballots had been tampered with and that absentee ballot envelopes arrived sealed.

The county said in its statement that county staff compared “the ballots received from the courier with the record in the Statewide Voter Registration System for all absentee ballots accepted by cities. The comparison demonstrated a 100% match.”

The statement also said Hennepin County staff inspected the individual ballots and determined that ballots in the trunk were in “sealed condition.”

“The county has taken appropriate, swift, and transparent action to determine that no ballots were compromised and to ensure this will not happen again,” Simon said.

He added in the press release that his office has issued a bulletin to all local elections officials to remind them of the protocols for transferring ballots to “ensure this is not repeated.”

The transportation of ballots must be done by two members of different political parties, according to Minnesota law. The video and statements released by Simon, the county and city officials refer to one individual who took part in the transportation of the ballots on Friday.

“This is a teachable moment for everyone involved in administering our elections,” he said. “To that end, our office has lent support to the county in their response to this incident and will continue to be available to support them and all other localities conducting elections.”

This is not the only election security controversy Hennepin County has faced this election season. The Minnesota GOP filed a petition on Oct. 16 stating that Hennepin County failed to supply the party affiliations of its election judges and that the GOP is concerned about party representation.

“When we had an opportunity to check the names on that list versus the names that we had submitted to the Secretary of State’s office, we found that none of the names that we had provided as Republican candidates for election judges appeared on the Hennepin County Board,” Republican Party Chair David Hann said at a press conference on Oct. 16.

The case brought forward by the GOP is still open.