In the final stretch before Election Day, ballots caught fire in three states and two ballot drop boxes and one Postal Service mailbox were damaged. Federal officials have warned that some social media users have encouraged sabotage of ballot drop boxes in recent months.
Early Monday morning in Oregon, Portland police responded to a fire they said was started by “an incendiary device” inside a ballot drop box. Oregon’s Multnomah County Elections Division said in a statement that three ballots were damaged. “Firefighters inside the ballot box secured all ballots,” the statement said.
Hours later, another Dropbox was set on fire in nearby Vancouver, Washington, where authorities say “hundreds” of ballots were badly damaged when the box’s fire suppression system failed to operate.
“The majority of the ballots are completely destroyed and the remaining ballots are severely damaged and very wet,” Clark County Auditor Greg Kimsey told NPR. He said his office is increasing the number of Dropbox retrievals so that ballots don’t sit in boxes for long.
At a press conference, Portland police officials said they believe the two incidents are connected.
“It’s heartbreaking. It’s a direct attack on democracy,” said Kimsey, who has been in office for 26 years.
Law enforcement agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, are still investigating in both Washington and Oregon, where election officials are asking voters who dropped off their ballots at those drop boxes over the weekend to contact them. so they can be sure to vote.
In a statement, Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs condemned what he described as “acts of terrorism” and reminded voters that they could check online to see if their ballots had been returned. or not and they will be able to print an alternate ballot or cast one. Personally
U.S. Rep. Mary Glossenkamp-Perez, a Democrat who represents Washington’s 3rd Congressional District, called on law enforcement officials to protect Dropboxes in the district. Gluesenkamp Perez faces a very competitive race and won his 2022 election by less than 3,000 votes. His opponent, Republican Joe Kent, called the fire a “cowardly act of domestic terrorism.”
Last week in Arizona, Dieter Kloffkorn, 35, told Phoenix police that he set fire to a USPS mailbox on Oct. 24. “Kloffkorn said he set the fire because he wanted to be arrested and his actions were not political. The motivation and not related to anything related to the upcoming election,” the Phoenix Police Department said in a statement.
All three states rely heavily on absentee ballots, which are often returned by drop box or mail. Ballot Dropbox has been the subject of conspiracy narratives and false claims about its security since the 2020 election cycle, according to Max Reed, a senior research manager for elections at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a nonprofit that studies extremism and disinformation. .
“There’s a lot of misunderstanding and, frankly, just lies about what the security measures are, not just on the ballot drop boxes but on the entire election vote tabulation and certification system,” Reid said. “Small-scale events such as fires can be used to support and reinforce these claims.”
In September, the Department of Homeland Security said in an intelligence brief, obtained through a public records request by the nonprofit government transparency group Property of the People, that Ballot Dropboxes could be used for online debates. Seen as a “soft target” on base. [domestic violent extremists] and other threat actors with election-related complaints.”
The department wrote that similar online debates had taken place in previous election cycles as well. In 2020, a ballot drop box fire in Los Angeles destroyed nearly 100 ballots. In Boston that same month, dozens of ballots were damaged when authorities said a man who appeared to be “emotionally distraught” set fire to a Dropbox near a public library.
Reed says it’s important to remember that Dropbox is often under video surveillance and many places include fire suppression elements.
“These Dropboxes are thought through and the measures are in place. And people shouldn’t allow these isolated incidents to undermine their confidence in these voting methods, which are generally highly sensitive,” Reid said. are safe,” Reed said.
Altogether, the three events affected hundreds of ballots, primarily in Washington. In Washington, Oregon and Arizona, nearly three million votes have been cast, as reported by the University of Florida Election Lab on Monday afternoon.
NPR producer Audrey Nguyen and Oregon Public Broadcasting reporter Dirk Vanderhart contributed reporting to this story.