Ballot drop boxes set on fire in Portland, Oregon, metro area

Fires were set early Monday in absentee ballot drop boxes in metro Portland, Oregon, resulting in hundreds of ballots being destroyed.

Just outside Portland in Vancouver, Washington, firefighters removed burning ballots from a drop box, according to video and photos from KATU-TV. The footage showed firefighters stamping out a smoldering pile of ballots that appeared to have been reduced to ashes.

Clark County Auditor Greg Kimsey, who administers elections in the area, said hundreds of ballots had been destroyed, but he did not know exactly how many. Officials will sort through them so they can contact some of the affected voters, but he said there is no way to know who many of the ballots belonged to. Voters who dropped off their ballots after 11 a.m. Saturday should contact his office to receive a new ballot, he said.

The fire in Vancouver erupted hours after an incendiary device sparked a fire in a ballot drop box outside the Multnomah County elections division in Portland, according to police and the elections division. Police released a photo showing the drop box with a charred hole.

Police quickly deployed a fire suppressant around 3:30 a.m. that protected most of the ballots in that drop box, according to the elections division. Three ballots were damaged. Election officials used unique identifiers to determine who the ballots belonged to and will contact the voters so they can vote again, the elections division said in a news release.

No other ballot drop box in Multnomah and Clark counties have been damaged, according to election officials. In Clark County, ballots will now be picked up daily, Kimsey said. In Multnomah County, drop boxes are monitored by security teams round-the-clock.

The ballots that were destroyed in Vancouver inject a new element of uncertainty into one of the most closely watched congressional races in the country. Democratic Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez faces a challenge from Republican Joe Kent, whom she beat by 1 percentage point two years ago. In social media posts, both candidates urged voters to ensure their ballots were received by election officials.

Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs (D) said a suspected incendiary device was placed in the ballot drop box in Vancouver. The FBI is among the law enforcement agencies that responded to the scene, 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,” Hobbs said in a statement.

He and other officials said voters should visit votewa.gov to track whether their ballot has been received by election officials.

The incidents occurred days after a 35-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of setting fire to the contents of a U.S. Postal Service mailbox in Phoenix, authorities have said.

Ballots were among the items that were damaged during the Thursday fire, they said. The man, Dieter B. Klofkorn, allegedly admitted to starting the fire, and he told law enforcement that the fire was not tied to the election. About 20 ballots were affected, election officials said. Officials will be able to process most of the affected ballots and will contact the voters for any they cannot, said Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer.