Someone set fire to ballot boxes in Oregon & Washington as US presidential election heats up

Two ballot drop boxes in the United States have been set on fire on Oct. 28, in what a local official has called a “direct attack on democracy”.

An incendiary act

In the early hours of Oct. 28, a ballot drop box in the city of Portland, Oregon was set on fire, with a second box being targeted in the neighbouring city of Vancouver, Washington hours later, as reported by NPR.

The boxes were attacked using what local police called an “incendiary device”.

Ballot drop boxes are boxes set up to allow U.S. voters to deposit their ballots remotely, with voting officials collecting them once every few days.

This means that voters do not need to wait in line on election day, and ballot staff have fewer crowds to deal with.

But it also means that the ballots sit in the boxes unattended for some time, and in this case they were vulnerable to malicious acts.

While the boxes are designed to be tamper-resistant to prevent stealing or replacing the ballots, in this case, it has not been able to prevent some damage from being done to them.

Suppression for ballots

The Portland box got away largely unscathed, as it had a fire suppression system built in.

An official from the Multnomah County Elections Division said that the Portland box only had three damaged ballots.

However, the drop box in Vancouver was not so lucky, as its fire suppression system failed, resulting in the destruction of hundreds of ballots.

The auditor for Clark County, Greg Kimsey, said that most of the ballots were destroyed with the remaining ballots being “very very wet”.

He was quoted by NPR as saying “It’s heartbreaking. It’s a direct attack on democracy.”

Conspiracies aflame

In recent years, remote voting initiatives such as ballot drop boxes have been the focus of conspiracy theories in the U.S.

The Associated Press described the theories as “baseless”, and that the theories are connected to former President and current Republican candidate Donald Trump claiming that they were used to “steal” the 2020 election from him.

This has resulted in several states, mainly those with strong Republican legislatures, banning them, such as Arkansas, North Carolina, and South Carolina.

Investigations showed that the two attacks were linked, and are likely to have involved a third attack in Vancouver on Oct. 8.

Although in different states, the cities of Portland and Vancouver (not to be confused with the Vancouver in Canada, a totally different city), are on opposite sides of the Columbia River.

The AP reports that the FBI is also investigating.

Meanwhile, voting officials have decided to post observers to all their drop boxes until the Nov. 5 elections, as well as to collect the ballots more regularly.

Acts of terrorism in a tight race

The Democratic candidate for Washington state’s Third Congressional District, which includes Vancouver, condemned the attack.

Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, the incumbent congressperson for the district, said that she was confident law enforcement would apprehend the culprit.

Meanwhile, she urged voters in the area not to be deterred from voting, and that any voter who used that affected drop box to contact voting officials, and if needed, to request a replacement ballot.

🇺🇸🗳️ I’m confident law enforcement will apprehend whoever set fire to the Fisher’s Landing ballot drop box on Monday morning. In the meantime, the people of Southwest Washington will not be deterred from exercising our right to vote.

Any voter who returned their ballot to the… pic.twitter.com/aq4GQKkqWH

— Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (@MGPforCongress) October 29, 2024

Joe Kent, her Republican opponent called the act a “cowardly act of terrorism” and has also urged followers not to be deterred from voting.

Stay focused on driving voter turn out & early voting, don’t be deterred from voting by a cowardly act of terrorism.

Vote early, check your voter status & have confidence that our great law enforcement officers in will stop whoever attacked our democratic process. https://t.co/gNmu2bvCeO pic.twitter.com/6uDxmQmWfo

— Joe Kent for WA-3 (@joekent16jan19) October 28, 2024

The two are facing a rematch of their 2022 election campaign, which Perez won by a very thin margin, with the contest remaining close.

Minor crime

The BBC reports that a post box containing ballots in Arizona was also set on fire last week, damaging 20 ballots.

But in that case, the man arrested for the arson attack said his motivation was not political, but a homeless man seeking to commit a “minor crime” to be sent to jail.

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Top image via @KatieDaviscourt/X