Recently released photos from the Clark County Elections Office show the magnitude of the Monday morning attack on an east Vancouver ballot box. Hundreds of ballots with singed edges and burns are shown spread over a table.
Elections staff have identified 488 damaged ballots retrieved from the ballot box, according to a Wednesday statement. As of Tuesday, 345 of the identified voters had already contacted the Elections Office to request replacement ballots. Elections staff will mail the remaining 143 replacement ballots to voters today.
Six ballots are unidentifiable, and others may have been completely burned to ash, according to the statement.
“I appreciate everyone’s understanding and patience as we work through this unprecedented event,” County Auditor Greg Kimsey said. “We have taken action that I hope will increase voters’ confidence in using the county’s ballot drop boxes.”
The FBI is investigating the arson attacks, which targeted two ballot boxes in Vancouver and Portland early Monday and another in Vancouver earlier this month.
“The U.S. 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,” according to a Tuesday statement from U.S. Attorney Tessa M. Gorman and Greg Austin, acting special agent in charge of the FBI Seattle field office.
The New York Times reported early Tuesday the incendiary devices found Monday at the ballot boxes in Vancouver and Portland were both marked with the words “Free Gaza.” A device found at a third ballot box earlier this month in Vancouver also had the words “Free Palestine,” the New York Times reported, attributing the information to “law enforcement officials.”
The Seattle FBI office would not confirm nor deny the messages when The Columbian asked.
Vancouver police pulled the smoldering ballots from the drop box at C-Tran’s Fisher’s Landing Transit Center about 4 a.m. Monday, according to a statement from the agency. The drop box’s fire suppression system didn’t activate.
Portland police were called about 3:30 a.m. to the 1000 block of Southeast Morrison Street for reports of a fire in a ballot box, according to a statement. The ballot box is in the same block as the Multnomah County Elections Division building.
Multnomah County Elections Director Tim Scott told the Associated Press that the fire suppressant inside the drop box protected nearly all the ballots; only three were damaged.
A suspect driving a Volvo was caught on surveillance camera near the Portland ballot box, according to the Portland Police Bureau. Investigators have enough evidence based on material recovered from the ballot boxes to tie the vehicle to Monday morning’s arson in east Vancouver and the device found near a ballot drop box Oct. 8 in downtown Vancouver.
