Ballot boxes lit on fire a week before heated US election
Date: 2024-10-29
Ballot boxes were set on fire in two US states with just over a week until the 2024 election.
Incendiary devices were used to burn early voting ballot boxes in Portland, Oregon, and in Vancouver, Washington, on Monday.
A blaze was discovered at a drop box in Portland early in the morning. It was put out rapidly due to a suppression system inside the container and a security guard responding to the scene. Only three of the ballots inside were damaged.
Several hours later, a drop box at a transit center across the Columbia River in Vancouver was found ablaze. That box also contained a suppression system but hundreds of ballots were still burned, according to Greg Kimsey, the auditor in Clark County, Washington state.
‘It’s a direct attack on democracy,’ said Kimsey, adding that it was ‘heartbreaking’.
He called on voters who left there ballots there after 11am on Saturday to seek replacements from his office.
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