Police imagine two poll field fires in neighboring cities within the Pacific Northwest are related.
The FBI is investigating after drop packing containers in Portland, Oregon, and close by Vancouver, Washington, went up in flames early Monday morning.
At a press convention in a while Monday, Portland Police Bureau spokesman Mike Benner mentioned that surveillance photographs confirmed a Volvo car stopping on the Portland drop field simply earlier than the hearth contained in the field was found, The Related Press reported.
Authorities added that sufficient materials from the incendiary gadgets used to start out the fires at each areas was recovered to recommend that the 2 fires have been linked. In addition they imagine that Monday’s incidents have been additionally related to an earlier occasion, when an incendiary gadget was discovered near a separate poll drop field in Vancouver on Oct. 8.
In Portland, a hearth suppressant contained in the field protected all however three ballots, native officers mentioned. In a assertion, Multnomah County officers mentioned that the three voters whose ballots have been broken would obtain replacements.
The identical safety system failed in Vancouver, which is about 10 miles throughout the Columbia River from Portland. Officers say tons of of ballots have been destroyed.
“Heartbreaking,” mentioned Greg Kimsey, the auditor for Clark County in Washington, per AP. “It’s a direct attack on democracy.”
Footage of the Vancouver incident captured by ABC affiliate KATU confirmed heavy smoke coming from contained in the field, with first responders ultimately placing out the flames.
“We have multiple systems and security measures in place to ensure your ballot is safe,’’ Multnomah County Elections Director Tim Scott said. “Your elections team is working hard to make sure that every vote counts.”
“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,” Washington Secretary of State Steven Hobbs mentioned in a assertion.
“I strongly denounce any acts of terror that aim to disrupt lawful and fair elections in Washington state,” he added. “Despite this incident, I have complete confidence in our county elections official’s ability to keep Washington’s elections safe and secure for all voters.”
Vancouver is the most important metropolis in Washington’s third Congressional District, the place first-term Democratic Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez and Republican challenger Joe Kent are going through off in what is predicted to be one of many closest Home races.
In a press release, Gluesenkamp Perez mentioned she’s requesting in a single day regulation enforcement presence in any respect poll drop packing containers in Clark County by way of Election Day.
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“Southwest Washington cannot risk a single vote being lost to arson and political violence,” she mentioned.
Final week, a United States Postal Service mail assortment field was set on hearth in Arizona’s Maricopa County, damaging about 20 electoral ballots contained in the field.
