Frame grab from video of smoke pouring out of a ballot box set on fire on Oct. 28 in Vancouver, Wash.The Associated Press
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A ballot drop box in Portland, Ore., and another in Vancouver, Wash., were set on fire Monday. Authorities said that enough material from the incendiary devices used in the fires was recovered to suggest both incidents were connected, and that they were also connected to an Oct. 8 incident when an incendiary device was placed at a different ballot drop box in Vancouver.
There is no suspect yet in these fires. Claims have been made without evidence on social media that the fires were set by someone from political left, and there have also been unfounded claims laying the blame with the political right for a different fire in Arizona.
Although it is not yet clear whether there was any political motivation for the apparent arson, it follows years of uproar over ballot drop-boxes and mail-in ballots sparked by Donald Trump’s baseless claims that these methods of voting are rife with fraud, and that they were part of a conspiracy to ensure his defeat in the 2020 election.
Arizona fire unconnected and without apparent political motivation
Dieter Klofkorn, 35, was arrested over a fire in a mailbox on Oct. 24 in Phoenix, and charged with arson. Twenty electoral ballots, and other pieces of mail, were reportedly damaged in the blaze. A police statement on the arrest of Mr. Klofkorn said he had allegedly “committed the arson because he wanted to be arrested” and that “his actions were not politically motivated and not related to anything involving the upcoming election.”
It was claimed by users on X that Mr. Klofkorn is a Republican and that he had targeted ballot drop boxes, even though it was a mailbox he set alight and he has no apparent political affiliation.
A post box in Phoenix, Arizona damaged by fire on Oct. 24.Fox10 Phoenix
Attempt to link ‘Antifa’ to ballot box fires
Controversial right-wing writer and influencer Andy Ngo shared four images in a post on X on Oct. 28 in an apparent attempt to link the ballot box fires to Antifa. Three of the images in his post are from 2020, the fourth from a far-left account on X that had its visibility restricted for violent speech
Antifa is a decentralized, left-wing political movement in the United States whose name stands for “anti-fascist.” There is currently no evidence to link the fires to any group or political affiliation.
The Southern Poverty Law Center published an article in 2022 about Mr. Ngo being paid to speak about Antifa in Poland. “What Ngo has portrayed as journalistic work largely consists of publishing anti-antifa, Islamophobic and transphobic tweets and articles to his sizable Twitter following, along with disseminating the arrest records and personal details of left-wing demonstrators,” the article said.
Screenshot of a post on X by Andy Ngo attempting to link ballot box fires to Antifa.X
Police release images of a vehicle possibly connected to the fires
Portland police released two images of a suspect vehicle believed to be connected to Monday’s fires and the one on Oct. 8. Police said the car is a 2001-2004 Volvo S-60 with no front licence plate and an unknown rear plate.
Combination of two images released by Portland police of a black Volvo connected to fires at ballot drop boxes in Oregon and Washington state.Portland Police Bureau
False claims about mail-in voting
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has made false claims about mail-in voting, including in his Friday appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast.
In debunking his comments on Mr. Rogan’s podcast, the Associated Press reported:
Mr. Trump’s central argument is that a Democratic conspiracy changed voting procedures during the coronavirus pandemic to make mail voting more popular and that the conspirators then rigged the election against him through those mail votes. That’s not what happened.
When the pandemic first hit during the 2020 presidential primary in March, Republican and Democratic election officials quickly switched to encourage mail voting to avoid crowded polls. This was relatively uncontroversial until Trump turned against it, claiming it would lay the seeds for potential fraud.
In doing so, Mr. Trump was returning to his usual playbook, claiming that any election he doesn’t win is fraudulent. He made that claim about the first contest he lost, Iowa’s 2016 Republican caucus. He even claimed he lost the popular vote in 2016 because of voting by illegal immigrants, though a presidential commission he empaneled to find evidence of it disbanded without finding any proof.
Associated Press
Oregon and Washington are mail-in states
Both Oregon and Washington use mail-in ballots for all elections. Both states verify ballots by matching the signature on a returned ballot against the one from the voter registration record. If there’s a mismatch the voter is contacted and given a chance to remedy their ballot.
Both states have different timelines for how they validate and pre-process ballots. Both release initial results at 8 p.m. local time, or 11 p.m. Eastern Time, on election day.