Ballot drop boxes in Baldwin Park, California and Boston, Massachusetts have been set on fire in the past week, damaging hundreds of ballots in an already tense election season.
According to CBS News, officers in Boston were called over the weekend when smoke was seen coming from a ballot box that held 122 ballots. Firefighters put out the fire by filling the box with water. Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin said 87 of the ballots could be processed, 35 were questionable and 10 were too damaged to count.
A 39 year old man named Worldy was arrested hours after the fire and charged with willful and malicious burning. He is presumed innocent, and the case had not been resolved when this story was published.
Galvin asked communities to add guards, video surveillance and more frequent pickups at ballot boxes, and advised locking drop boxes early on Saturday, which is Halloween. He said he is concerned that after dark the boxes could be targeted by pranksters or other people.
The Los Angeles Times reported that a ballot box in Baldwin Park was set on fire last week, and that firefighters also used water to put out those flames, leaving the contents soaked. More than 200 ballots were affected. County Clerk Dean Logan said election officials will sort through what is left and contact voters whose ballots may have been damaged, and that about 20 people had already asked for replacement ballots.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis said, according to CBS News, that the fire has all the signs of an attempt to disenfranchise voters and question the security of elections.
Local authorities and the FBI are investigating both fires.
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