It begins
By Ballot drop box set on fire in Vancouver last night.
A Vancouver ballot box was burned in an arson Monday morning, authorities report – with hundreds of ballots possibly damaged in the fire.
Investigators believe the incident is connected to two other arson incidents in Portland and SW Washington
KATU was on the scene at Fisher’s Landing Transit Center in Vancouver shortly after 4 a.m., where heavy smoke was seen coming from inside a drop-off ballot box.
Our photographer Evan Bell captured grey smoke steadily billowing out of the Park and Ride ballot box at Fisher’s Landing Transit Center near Southeast 162nd Avenue.
Multiple police units were in the area, and the ballot box was cordoned off by police tape as it continued to smoke.
Around 6 a.m., KATU captured footage of first responders releasing a pile of actively burning ballots onto the ground, which continued to smolder and smoke heavily even after the flames were put out.
The ballot box attacked was, as noted, at the Park and Ride at Fisher’s landing, Vancouver, next to the CTRAN transit building. (This is most Democratic-leaning area of WA-3, A Trump leaning district where Marie Gluesenkamp Perez pulled off one of the most stunning upsets in 2022, and should probably be considered a slight underdog in her race for re-election, so these votes matter in a big way even as Washington is in the bag in the presidential race.) Ballots were last picked up there at 11:00 AM Saturday, so if you think you might know of anyone who might have dropped a ballot there, let them know they should get in touch with the Clark County auditor’s office about getting a new ballot.
There was also an incendiary devise found at a ballot box across the river in Portland on SE Morrison that started a fire. Unclear if ballots were destroyed in that case. WA ballot drop boxes have fire suppression technology, but in this case it evidently didn’t work.
It may not surprise you to learn that tips for ballot box discussion have been freely exchanged on Trump’s social media platform.
8 Days.
Update: another story (thanks to commenter The Temporary Name”) suggests ballot box fire suppression did work in Portland, and only three ballots were damaged, and those voters will be reached out to by Multnomah county officials. But “hundreds” were destroyed in the Vancouver ballot box attack.