In The Last Week, Ballot Boxes Have Been Set On Fire In California And Massachusetts

It’s 2020, so anything that can happen will happen. 

In an already crazy election season, ballot drop boxes have become the latest targets. Boxes in Baldwin Park, California, and Boston, Massachusetts, have been set on fire in the last week.

Over the weekend, officers were called to the scene when smoke was spotted coming out of a ballot box, according to CBS News. A Boston man set fire to the box that contained more than 120 ballots. 

Firefighters were able to extinguish the fire by filling the box with water. Of the 122 ballots it contained, 87 of them were able to be processed, 35 are questionable, and ten were too damaged to be counted, Secretary of the Commonwealth William Garvin said.

Worldy Armand, 39, believed to be an “emotionally disturbed” individual, was arrested hours after allegedly setting the box on fire. He has been charged with willful and malicious burning.

Massachusetts’ election chief has asked for security to be ramped up by placing guards at ballot boxes, add video surveillance, and empty boxes more frequently. He’s also advising communities to lock their drop boxes early on Saturday, which is Halloween.

Galvin said he’s “concerned that for that period of time, especially after dark, that they could be the object of pranksters or other individuals.”

According to the Los Angeles Times, a ballot box in Baldwin Park was set on fire last week.

Like the Boston incident, firefighters used water to extinguish the flames, causing the box’s contents to become a soggy mess. More than 200 ballots were affected in the fire.

Election officials will have to sort through what was left in the box. They will reach out to anyone whose ballot may have been affected. County Clerk Dean C. Logan said about 20 people have already reached out for a replacement ballot.

“(This) has all the signs of an attempt to disenfranchise voters and call into question the security of our elections,” LA. County Supervisor Hilda Solis said, according to CBS News.

Both fires remain under investigation by local authorities and the Federal Bureau of Investigations.