Authorities say “hundreds” of ballots were damaged by fire in Oregon and Washington

Authorities are investigating after two ballot boxes were set on fire in Washington and Oregon early Monday morning, The Oregonian reported.

Around 3:30 am local time, police responded to a call about a ballot box on fire in Portland. It was later revealed that an incendiary device had been placed inside the ballot box. Three ballots were destroyed.

Just 30 minutes down the road, a ballot box outside a bus station in Vancouver, Washington, was found on fire three hours later, KATU reported.The local news station captured footage of first responders and smoking ballots around 6:30 am local time, just under 24 hours after the last ballot pickup at that location, the Clark County elections auditor, Greg Kimsey told KATU. 

The box contained hundreds of ballots, of which only a few were saved. 

“It appears that a device was attached to the outside of the ballot drop box that resulted in the ballots being ignited,” Kimsey told The Oregonian. “We don’t have the exact number, but it was hundreds.”

Though Vancouver typically leans blue, this year’s race for Washington’s 3rd Congressional district is a tight race between incumbent Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash., and Republican challenger Joe Kent.

The apparent attacks come after at least 20 mail-in ballots in Arizona were similarly set on fire and destroyed in what authorities termed a “deliberate act of vandalism.”