Hundreds Of Votes Destroyed After Two Ballot Boxes Caught Fire In Oregon & Washington

Police are looking into how two ballot drop boxes caught fire on Monday in Portland, Oregon, and in nearby Vancouver, Washington. According to the Associated Press, the fires destroyed hundreds of ballots and seem to have been intentionally set.

The Portland Police Bureau reported that officers and firefighters responded to a fire in one drop box at about 3:30 a.m. They later determined that an unnamed suspect had placed an incendiary device inside. However, Multnomah County Elections Director Tim Scott said a fire suppressant inside the drop box protected nearly all the ballots. Only three ballots sustained damage, and Scott says his office will contact the voters for replacement ballots.

A few hours later, in Vancouver, television crews captured footage of smoke pouring out of a ballot box at a transit center. Vancouver is in Washington’s 3rd Congressional District. Per AP, the site is expected to be one of the closest U.S. House races in the country, between first-term Democratic Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez and Republican challenger Joe Kent.

Clark County Auditor Greg Kimsey in Vancouver told The Associated Press that the ballot drop box at the Fisher’s Landing Transit Center also had a fire suppression system inside. But, for some reason, it wasn’t effective. Responders pulled a burning pile of ballots from inside the box.

Kimsey confirmed that the fire destroyed hundreds of votes. The last pickup at the transit center drop box happened at 11 a.m. this past Saturday. Kimsey said their office is urging anyone who dropped their ballot off after the fire to contact the auditor’s office to obtain a new one.

In response to the ballot box fires, Kimsey’s office will increase the frequency of its ballot box collection and change collection times to the evening. This way, should similar crimes happen, the ballot boxes won’t remain full overnight