Authorities are investigating a series of suspected arson attacks on three ballot drop boxes in the Pacific Northwest that potentially damaged hundreds of ballots.
Early on Monday morning, fires erupted at ballot drop boxes in Portland, Oregon and Vancouver, Washington, police in both cities confirmed. Authorities linked the attacks to a similar incident on Oct. 8 that failed to damage any ballots.
Authorities said they have not determined a motive for the attacks yet, but potentially hundreds of ballots were damaged in Washington, Clark County Auditor Greg Kimsey told multiple local outlets on Monday.
“We do know acts like this are targeted and they’re intentional and we’re concerned about that intentional act trying to impact the election process,” Portland Police Bureau Chief Assistant Chief Amanda McMillan said in a statement released on Monday afternoon. “We’re dedicated to stopping this kind of behavior.”
Footage of the blaze in Vancouver was broadcast by local station KATU on Monday morning. The video shows firefighters pry open the smoking dropbox with a crowbar, then dig smoldering paperwork out onto the street.
The ballots in Oregon fared much better.
“Fire suppressant inside the ballot box protected virtually all the ballots,” the Multnomah County Elections Director Tim Scott confirmed later on Monday. Only three ballots were damaged, and the county said they would contact those individual voters for replacements.
The PPB said an “incendiary device” was found in the Portland mailbox. Explosive disposal units were called to the scene at both fires. However, a press officer later told KATU that the device was not a bomb.
Earlier in October, police reported a similar incident at another drop box in Vancouver. An incendiary device was also found at that scene, but it failed to do much more than scorch the metal box.
On Monday afternoon, the PPB released images of the suspect’s vehicle—a likely 20-year-old Volvo sedan that was seen at the crime scene in Oregon. Investigators said they believe the car was also “tied to two similar incidents in the Vancouver, Washington area.”
The FBI also confirmed they were investigating the fires.
In a lengthy statement posted on X, formerly Twitter, Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-WA) called the fires “unpatriotic” and called for police officers to be posted at the drop boxes leading up to Election Day.
Perez’s Republican challenger, Joe Kent, similarly condemned the fires in a video posted on social media, and encouraged voters to check the status of their ballots if they used the drop box in Fisher’s Point.
