Police looking for person responsible for setting fire to ballot boxes in Washington and Oregon

With Election Day just days away, hundreds of ballots were destroyed by fires this week at two voting machines in the Pacific Northwest, investigators are searching for a culprit they say is responsible for both.

Many of the ballots in a drop box in Portland were unaffected, but hundreds were destroyed in a second ballot box fire near Vancouver, Washington, election officials said.

The incidents are believed to be related to another that occurred earlier this month in Vancouver.

The incidents emerged in a September US Department of Homeland Security bulletin, obtained by watchdog group Property of the People, and warned:

“Some social media users are discussing and encouraging various methods of sabotaging ballot drop boxes and avoiding detection, likely increasing the potential for targeting this infrastructure during the 2024 election cycle.”

“Election infrastructure remains an attractive target for some domestic violent extremists and other threat actors with election-related grievances who seek to disrupt the democratic process and election operations,” the bulletin warned.

“Make no mistake, an attack on a ballot box is an attack on our democracy and is completely unacceptable,” said Oregon Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade on Monday.

“Whatever the motivation behind this incident, there is no justification for any attempt to disenfranchise voters,” he said.

“We take the safety of our election workers seriously and will not tolerate threats or acts of violence that seek to undermine the democratic process,” emphasized Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs.

“I strongly denounce any acts of terror that seek to disrupt legal and fair elections in Washington state,” Hobbs added.

Here’s what we know

An “incendiary device” was attached to the side of a ballot drop box when Portland Police responded to a call around 3:30 a.m. local time on Monday, March 28, and security personnel extinguished the fire. fire, the Portland Police Bureau said in a statement.

At a bus station in Vancouver, Washington, just 15 miles away, a second ballot box was set on fire Monday morning, according to the Vancouver Police Department. Responding officers discovered a “suspicious device” smoking and on fire next to the box, police said.

All voting machines in Multnomah and Clark counties have a fire suppressor installed, election officials said during a news conference Monday. Multnomah County Elections Director Tim Scott said the fire suppressant inside the Portland box protected more than 400 ballots, and only three of them were damaged.

Election officials were still counting all the ballots involved in the Vancouver fire but believe hundreds were destroyed, said Clark County Auditor Greg Kimsey.

Voting in Oregon and Washington is done almost entirely by mail or ballot drop-off. Less than 1% of people in Multnomah County vote in person, according to Scott. In Clark County, 60% of ballots received are from drop boxes, Kimsey said.

Guidance for voters

Laura Shepard, a spokesperson for the city of Vancouver, said election officials are asking anyone who placed a ballot in the box after 11 a.m. Saturday to contact them to check the status of their ballot.

“Voters should be assured that even if their ballots were in the affected box, their votes will be counted,” Scott said.

Officials in Portland plan to contact the three affected voters using “unique identifiers on their ballot envelopes so they can receive replacement ballots,” according to the director.

Authorities search for “suspicious vehicle”

Evidence from the incendiary devices found at the ballot boxes on Monday shows the fires are connected — as does a third incident on Oct. 8, when one such device was placed in a different drop box in Vancouver, a Department spokesperson said. of Portland Police, Mike Benner.

Police have identified a “suspicious vehicle” seen leaving the Portland fire scene, they said in a news release Monday — a black or dark-colored 2001-2004 Volvo S-60.

“We don’t know the motives behind these acts, it seems like a series of three at this point, but we do know that acts like this are targeted and intentional,” said Portland Police Bureau Assistant Chief Amanda McMillan.

“We are concerned about this intentional act trying to affect the electoral process.”

The FBI’s Seattle office told CNN which is working with state and local authorities on the investigation.

Improved security at the polls

As Election Day approaches, state leaders are encouraging citizens to vote, promising greater security around the polls despite the incidents.

“There are several ways for voters to cast their ballots and ensure their voices are heard,” said Washington Governor Jay Inslee.

The ballot box in Portland has already been replaced, according to Multnomah County Chairwoman Jessica Vega Pederson, and law enforcement in Multnomah County and Vancouver, Washington, plan to increase ballot box patrols in the area.

Inslee said in a statement Monday night that “there will be heightened 24-hour security around ballot drop-off locations.”

Vancouver is in Washington’s 3rd Congressional District, currently represented by Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, where one of the most competitive House races in the country is taking place.

Following the polling station fires, Gluesenkamp Perez requested nighttime police patrols of the polls until Election Day.

The Democratic congresswoman told Kaitlan Collins of CNNwho isn’t angry about the damaged ballots for partisan reasons, but “because I’m an American who sees the corrosive, toxic environment that we’ve seen across the country coming home in a really harmful and ugly way.”

This content was originally published in Police looking for person responsible for setting fire to polls in Washington and Oregon on the CNN Brasil website.

Source: CNN Brasil