Video Showing Ballot Box Illegally Transported In Detroit Is Fake News; It Was Photographer Equipment

A video showing a ballot box being illegally transported in Detroit on Wednesday was proven to be fake news after being fact-checked by a broadcasting station in Detroit.

According to footage taken by Kellye SoRelle, a Texas lawyer and member of Lawyers for Trump, a man was seen taking a box out of a white van and placing it into a red wagon. The wagon was then pulled inside a vote-counting facility at 2:40 a.m.

As the man walked away, SoRelle said the box “looks like one of those lockboxes” and raised alarms that the box may have been a ballot box.

The video, which was also shared by conservative website Texas Scorecard, has been shared and viewed thousands of times as of Thursday afternoon.

SoRelle claimed that the vote-counting site had allowed visitors to enter and leave without conducting identification checks. The Texas lawyer also claimed that the workers had six-hour shifts, which meant no one needed overnight luggage.

A spokeswoman for the Michigan Department of State said the video did not show any illegal activity. WXYZ also dispelled rumors of illegal activity and said the man shown in the video was a photographer for the station. He was loading his camera and other photography equipment into the wagon at the time of the incident.

“A video making the rounds on social media and other platforms that claims to show voter fraud and a wagon being loaded outside of the TCF Center in Detroit is actually video of a WXYZ photographer loading his camera and other gear into a wagon for work,” their statement read.

WXYZ also posted an explainer video on Thursday, in which reporter Jenn Schanz showed a clear shot of the red wagon and black box used by the station’s photographer.

“Our crews, like a lot of news crews yesterday, were working really long hours inside the TCF Center,” Schanz said. “Our crews were coming back and forth to get new batteries, new equipment, new equipment to go live with. So that’s where that video came from.”

The footage comes as tensions are running high across the U.S. due to election results. Several states have yet to declare a winner, and Michigan’s 16 electoral votes has become crucial in the race.

Democratic challenger Joe Biden secured a nearly 70,000 lead over President Donald Trump due to the votes he gained in Detroit, The Washington Post reported.