Drop-off ballot boxes in Oregon and Washington were set afire early Monday, burning up already-cast ballots and sparking new worries over election integrity.
Police in Portland said someone triggered an incendiary device inside a ballot box in the early morning hours.
Hours later a box in Vancouver, Washington, just over the state line from Portland, caught fire in what authorities believe to be another arson.
KATU-TV captured video of that box as smoke poured from it. A firefighter then pried open the back and a fiery steam of ballots poured out. Hundreds of ballots burned.
The Associated Press reported that the drop box has a fire suppression system, but it failed.
“Heartbreaking,” Clark County Auditor Greg Kimsey told the news wire. “It’s a direct attack on democracy.”
He said ballots were last picked up from the box Saturday morning. Anyone who voted after that was told to obtain a new one.
Officials promised to try to collect ballots more frequently to head off repeats.
The Associated Press said no ballots were destroyed in the Portland incident.
Both Washington and Oregon conduct their elections entirely by mail, which means every registered voter is sent a ballot at election time.
They can mail them back or leave them in the drop boxes that have become ubiquitous as the country moves to expand voting outside of Election Day.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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