That Oregon does all mail-in voting makes this act even more despicable. Does the perp really, seriously think there are no Trump votes in there?
(I do see another thread in P&E. I’m leaving it here.)
On a happier note, I was working at the library today, which was not hosting early voting, and the people who came in to cast their ballots were, to a person, very pleasant when we told them it wasn’t being held today. We would tell them when and where else they would go, and they thanked us (and a few bought some books while they were there).
The perp knows perfectly well that there are Trump ballots in that box, but also that those Trump ballots would be heavily outnumbered by Harris ballots. So it makes mathematical sense to him for him to burn the box.
Glad to read there was fire suppressant in the boxes, so minimal damage. In PA we can track online if our ballot was received. I wondered if it’s the same here—IOW, a pain in the ass, but fixable even if ballots were destroyed.
The system didn’t work properly in Vancouver for whatever reason, and they estimate that hundreds of ballots were destroyed. This is where one of the tightest races in the country is being run, and Vancouver is probably the most liberal part of that district.
Note that Oregon’s 5th District (Clackamas County) is where the box in Oregon was attacked.
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the two closest races in the country (which happen to be geographically next to each other) might potentially be impacted by these attacks. These are races that could come down to the slightest margin, so even a single ballot box’s worth of ballots could change the result.
Yikes. As I said earlier, I hope this is fixable. It would be in PA, and I’d guess anywhere. They must be able to know if a voter has cast a ballot or not, whatever the method.
They can, but due to the short timeline it’s an issue.
What they are advising is that anyone who may have used the dropbox in Vancouver, check your ballot status online (which you can do). If it hasn’t shown up yet, that means there is a problem, because it should have already been counted. If it isn’t there, you can request a new ballot on that same page, and they’ll get it out to you. But it’s a very tight turnaround time for a new ballot to get mailed, then they receive it from the mailbox, fill it out again, send it back, and get it in soon enough to meet the deadline.
This has the real possibility of actually affecting the election there. It is some scary shit.
(By the way, some of the info I posted above is from an NPR story I listened to on my way home from work today, yes I listen to a lot of NPR.)
'Multiple national news outlets, including the New York Times and the Associated Press, reported the [sic] both incendiary devices recovered Monday were marked with the words “Free Gaza." A device found at the third ballot box earlier this month in Vancouver also had the words “Free Palestine,” the New York Times reported Tuesday, attributing the information to “law enforcement officials.” ’
So I’m figuring 50% chance its a pro Gaza protestor, 50% its a MAGA Republican trying to stir up shit and blame it on left wingers. We won’t know for sure unless they catch the perp.