By Early Monday morning, ballot drop boxes in Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver, Washington, were set on fire, according to police, occurring just over a week before Election Day. Local officials reported that three ballots were damaged in Portland, while potentially “hundreds” could be affected in Vancouver.
BREAKING: A device went off at a Portland, Oregon ballot drop box, damaging a handful of ballots.
Additionally a ballot drop box was set on fire in Vancouver, WA with hundreds of ballots insidepic.twitter.com/JbC13rv0f0
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) October 28, 2024
The Hill reported:
Officers determined an incendiary device was placed inside a ballot box in Portland, Ore., when they responded to reports of a fire around 3:30 a.m. local time, according to the Portland Police Bureau.
Fire suppressant inside the ballot box protected “virtually all” the ballots inside, according to Multnomah County Elections Director Tim Scott, though three ballots were damaged. The affected voters will be contacted for replacements.
“We have multiple systems and security measures in place to ensure your ballot is safe,” Scott told Oregonians in a release.
Around 4 a.m. PDT in nearby Vancouver, Wash., officers responded to an arson at another ballot box and discovered a “suspicious device” nearby, according to a release from the Vancouver Police Department, as reported by local outlets. Officials say hundreds of ballots could be damaged, according to reports, and the FBI is continuing the investigation. The Hill has reached out to Clark County officials for more.
The two drop boxes affected were roughly 15 miles apart.
The ballot drop off box in Washington could impact one of the most hotly-contested congressional races in the country, according to The New York Post.
“Vancouver is the largest city in Washington’s 3rd Congressional District, which is hosting a fiercely competitive contest between incumbent Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Wash.) and Republican Joe Kent.
Perez defeated Kent by fewer than 3,000 votes two years ago and the nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates the rematch as a ‘toss-up’ race.”
Efforts to restrict ballot drop boxes have been gaining traction, with new laws, court rulings, and actions by local and state officials targeting them in at least a dozen states over the past two years.
In Texas, a new law banned drop boxes entirely. New Hampshire removed them after the governor lifted an emergency order permitting their use during the pandemic. In Wisconsin, where there were more than 500 drop box locations in 2020, the state Supreme Court declared them illegal in July.
Access to drop boxes has also decreased elsewhere:
In Pennsylvania, officials in one county reduced the number of drop boxes from six to one, and later to zero. A Florida law led counties to eliminate locations and restrict hours, resulting in approximately 190,000 Palm Beach County voters living at least half a mile farther from a drop box in the 2022 primary than they did in 2020. Similarly, a new Georgia law prompted populous counties to cut back on drop boxes, with one reducing its locations by 80% from 2020.
Further restrictions appear likely. Bills to ban drop boxes passed in one legislative chamber this year in Idaho, Arizona, and Pennsylvania before falling short.
CNN noted that “other fires affecting ballots have been recently reported across the country. Last week, a mailbox outside a Phoenix post office was set on fire, damaging an unknown number of ballots. A 35-year-old man was charged with arson in connection with the incident. The Phoenix Police Department said he told them it was not politically motivated.
The fires come after the FBI and Department of Homeland Security recently issued a bulletin raising concerns “election-related grievances,” such as a belief in voter fraud, could motivate domestic extremists to engage in violence in the weeks before and after the November election.
In the intelligence bulletin obtained by CNN, the agencies said some domestic violent extremists likely see publicly accessible locations, including ballot drop boxes, as ‘attractive targets.’”
[Read More: Governor Thinks Trump Is Throwing In The Towel]
