Ballot boxes were set on fire in Oregon and Washington. Should voters be concerned?

Millions of Americans have already cast their votes in the 2024 presidential election, either at polling places or by dropping them off by mail or in ballot boxes — long a popular way to return completed ballots. When some ballots were damaged Monday in fires deliberately set at ballot boxes in Oregon and Washington state, it raised questions about the security of the ballot boxes and how votes would be counted.

But election officials told PolitiFact that the vast majority of ballot boxes are secure, and it is rare for ballots to be lost or destroyed. Election officials are accustomed to and trained in dealing with damaged ballots.

“I think we’ve had some bad actors here,” the chairman of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission said Benjamin Hovland. “Overall, it’s a safe way to vote.”

In Portland, Oregon, one fire suppression system the ballot box protected hundreds of ballots, and three were damaged. The voters’ names were still visible, and the county clerk will contact those voters, said Oregon Secretary of State Communications Laura Kerns. Voters in Oregon can do that too track their ballots online.

“Voters should be assured that even if their ballots were in the appropriate box, their votes will be counted,” Multnomah County, Oregon, Elections Director Tim Scott said in a statement Monday. press release.

In Vancouver, Washington, ballot boxes were equipped with fire suppression systems, but it appears they were not functioning properly. Election officials identified 488 damaged ballots, according to a press release from Clark County Auditor Greg Kimsey. Vancouver is located in Clark County.

Of the 488 voters whose ballots were damaged, 345 had contacted the Clark County elections office to request a replacement ballot as of Tuesday, and election workers sent replacement ballots to the remaining 143 voters on Thursday. Six ballots could not be identified and others could have been burned beyond recognition, Kimsey said.

Millions of ballots have been returned by mail or drop box without incident.

“We’ve had about 50 million early votes and have already voted, very few issues,” David Becker, executive director and founder of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, told me. CBS News on Tuesday. “These are very, very isolated attacks.”

How election officials handle damaged ballots

There are scenarios in which a ballot could be lost or destroyed, but that is rare, said Hovland of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.

“Election officials will do what they can to make that voter healthy,” he said. It is important that voters have their contact information on file with their local board of elections so that they can be reached if necessary.

While ballot box fires are a new development, election officials are used to dealing with damaged ballots.

“It’s not unusual for a voter to call you and say, ‘My dog ​​ate my ballot, I spilled coffee on it,’ and you would issue the voter a new ballot,” he said. Jennifer Morella former Utah and Colorado state election official who is now CEO of The Elections Group, which provides election consulting.

Practices vary by state, but election officials typically count the first ballot received, so even in cases where a voter fills out a replacement ballot despite an initial ballot having already been counted, the replacement will not be counted. If a voter submits two ballots, election officials would report the incident to authorities responsible for investigating election crimes, Morrell said.

When ballots are so damaged that they cannot be read by machines but are still intact and the markings are still legible, trained bipartisan teams transfer voters’ selections to new ballots so machines can read them, Morrell said.

Fire-damaged ballots that still contain enough information to identify a voter can be replaced by contacting the voter. If the ballot turns to ash in a fire, that’s more difficult, Morrell said. A voter can track a ballot online to make sure it has arrived and call the local election office to check on a ballot’s status if there are any concerns about it.

If you are unable to determine whether your ballot has been received and are unable to obtain a replacement ballot, Morrell recommends that you go to your polling place on Election Day and vote with a provisional ballot. If your original ballot is ultimately cast, your provisional ballot will not be counted.

In Oregon, for example, all voting is done by mail and a replacement ballot can be issued to any voter who needs one. Unique barcodes on each envelope ensure that only one ballot per registered voter is counted, Kerns said.

Ballot boxes are generally safe

Authorities believe the ballot box fires in Oregon and Washington are related, and are also related to an Oct. 8 incident in which another mailbox in Vancouver was attacked with an incendiary device.

There have been isolated examples of ballots being destroyed in other places this election cycle. A mailbox was set on fire Oct. 24 in Phoenix, and about 20 ballots were destroyed. Maricopa County Election Officials contacted voters she knew were affectedand others who had used that mailbox to mail their ballots were asked to contact the elections office for a replacement ballot. And in 2020, arson at two mailboxes, one in California and the other inside Massachusettsdestroyed an estimated total of 135 ballots.

Election experts are reassuring voters that ballot boxes are safe to use.

Suzanne Almeidadirector of state operations for Common Cause, a public advocacy group, told reporters in a Tuesday webinar that “we have not seen a trend with the fires.”

“Voting by mail is still incredibly safe,” including using ballot drop boxes, Almeida said.

Almeida encouraged voters to track their ballots online. Many election offices allow voters to sign up to receive text messages or emails when their completed ballots have been received.

Each state organizes its own elections, but many mailboxes have fire suppression systems and many mailboxes are monitored by surveillance cameras; some states have laws requiring supervision by staff or a video camera. Others are located in buildings and not accessible to the public at night. In Clark County, election officials said they would collect ballots The stalls are cleared out before 5.30pm every day so they are not full overnight, and increased patrols are being carried out around the stalls. Election workers also monitor the polls around the clock.

The Associated Press interviewed election officials after the 2020 election and found that there were no widespread problems with the ballot boxes, and none that could have affected the results.

Dropboxes are generally more secure than stand-alone mailboxes. They typically weigh hundreds of pounds, can be screwed into the ground and have small slots through which people can deposit their ballots. Documented cases of security issues are rare.

PolitiFact senior correspondent Amy Sherman contributed reporting.

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