(Image via abc7news.com)
Staff Writer: Gwen Pichette
Email: gpichette@umassd.edu
It’s no surprise that the weeks leading up to a presidential election are always tense as the nation waits anxiously to see who will become the next president. This 2024 election cycle is no different.
Yet, these tensions reached an alarming high last Monday when hundreds upon hundreds of ballots were damaged in multiple arson attacks.
They occurred across the Pacific Northwest area in Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver, Washington.
This is even more concerning, considering that ballot box voting and mail-in ballots have become increasingly popular in the states where the attacks occurred.
In fact, according to Director Tim Scott and Clark County Auditor Greg Kimsey, “less than 1% of people in Oregon’s Multnomah County vote in person,” and “in Clark County, Washington, 60% of the ballots received are from ballot drop boxes, and 40% are received by mail.”
This has made many become fearful of potential voter fraud.
About 475 ballots were retrieved from a flaming ballot box in Vancouver, Washington, but thanks to fire suppressant devices, many ballots were able to be salvaged.
Poll workers were tasked with sifting through the damaged ballots for information in order to contact voters so that they would be able to receive a new ballot.
Suspicious incendiary devices were found attached to the side of the ballot boxes and inside of them, which were used to set the boxes on fire.
The FBI is now investigating this and is hunting for the culprit who is believed to be behind all the attacks.
Authorities believe him to be a white male between the ages of 30 and 40 “who is highly knowledgeable in both metal fabrication and welding.” He is believed to be behind all of the fires in Oregon and Washington, and it is also entirely possible that he “intends to continue these targeted attacks” up until election day.
While the Vancouver police were pushed for a comment, the FBI released a statement on the attacks on their behalf, assuring that they are doing the best they can:
“The US Attorney’s Office and the FBI want to assure our communities that we are working closely and expeditiously together to investigate the two incendiary fires at the ballot boxes in Vancouver, Washington, and the one in Portland, Oregon, and will work to hold whoever is responsible fully accountable,” US Attorney Tessa M. Gorman and Greg Austin, acting special agent in charge of the FBI’s Seattle office said in a statement Tuesday.
This has begun to sow distrust for the ballot box as a system for voting.
John Burnside, whose ballots were destroyed in one of the arson attacks in Vancouver, Washington, is one such person.
Distrustful of the ballot box system after the attacks, he says he will instead be making the drive across town to deliver his ballots in person:
“It’s probably a 20-minute drive, but it’s well worth it at this point,” Burnside said.
Vandalizing a USPS collection is a federal crime, and if an individual is found destroying federal property, they could spend up to three years in jail. In addition, they could be tacked with a $250,000 fine.
It is also unclear as to whether these arson attacks will be deemed as an act of domestic terrorism.
Voter fraud, on the other hand, has repercussions that work on a state-by-state level. These include felony charges, thousands upon thousands of dollars in fines, and imprisonment of up to five years.
In response to these attacks, steps are being taken to prevent further voting fraud in this election.
Police surveillance around ballot boxes will also be increased, like in Washington, where Governor Jay Inslee says that there will be “24-hour enhanced security around ballot drop-off locations.”
Skepticism of certain voting methods has shown up in other ways.
For instance, a box containing completed early voting ballots was discovered and discarded in the middle of the roadway in South Miami Dade by a truck driver a week before election day.
While the driver who stopped and retrieved it thankfully returned it to the police station, and it was deemed that the ballots were not tampered with or damaged, situations like this have caused many to be distrustful that their votes are getting to the right place.
“There’s this larger environment of distrust in our elections that has generated a set of security and safety concerns that ballot drop boxes are just one part of,” said Mindy Romero, Director of the Center for Inclusive Democracy at the University of Southern California. “These sorts of actions, like bombing these drop boxes, I think … are ultimately about increasing fear, increasing distrust and potentially discouraging people from voting.”