Less than one week before the 2024 presidential election, and tensions related to voter security and authenticity are at an all-time high.
Coupled with early voting happening across the country, reports are now surfacing that high-profile group with radical ties are behind recent efforts to destroy ballot boxes in key swing states.
Here’s the latest.
According to a shocking ABC News report, ballot boxes in Oregon and Washington were set on fire with incendiary devices early Monday in what police believe to be connected incidents.
The devices used in the arson incidents carried markings with the expression “Free Gaza,” two sources told ABC News.
According to the investigation, the ballot box fires, which occurred near the Oregon-Washington border, are also believed to be connected to a third ballot box incident that occurred earlier this month in Vancouver, Washington, police said.
The sources said the incendiary device used in the first arson, back on Oct. 8, had “Free Gaza” and “Free Palestine” on it.
The two subsequent devices, set off in the early hours of Monday morning in Vancouver, Washington and nearby Portland, Oregon, carried the slogan “Free Gaza.”
One of the sources told ABC News it was unclear whether these markings reflect the views of a pro-Palestine activist — or if it was an individual trying to manipulate existing divisions in the U.S.
In the first reported incident on Monday, Portland police responded to a fire at a ballot box around 3:30 a.m. local time, police said. Security at the Multnomah County Elections Division responded and extinguished the fire, officials said.
“Our officers quickly determined that there was an incendiary device that had been attached to the ballot box, and that is what ignited this fire,” Portland Police Bureau spokesperson Mike Benner said at a press briefing on Monday.
The bureau’s explosive disposal unit cleared the device, police said.
Multnomah County Elections Director Tim Scott told ABC News that 409 ballots inside the ballot box “were undamaged” and preserved thanks to the fire suppressant.
Oregon Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade said the limited impact to ballots “shows that our systems are safe and secure.”
“Make no mistake, an attack on a ballot box is an attack on our democracy and completely unacceptable,” Griffin-Valade said in a statement. “Whatever the motivation behind this incident, there is no justification for any attempt to disenfranchise voters.”
No other ballot boxes or official drop sites in Multnomah County were affected, the division said.
The Portland Fire Investigations Unit is investigating.
However, an incident in nearby Vancouver, Washington did not end as well.
Police said that about a half hour later, around 4 a.m. local time, officers responded to a report of a ballot box that was smoking and on fire.
“Officers arrived and located a suspicious device next to the box,” which was on fire, the Vancouver Police Department said in a statement.
The fire was extinguished, and members of the Metro Explosive Disposal Unit safely collected the device, police said.
“Hundreds” of ballots are believed to have been damaged on Monday, though an official number has not yet been determined, Clark County Auditor Greg Kimsey said at the press briefing.
Fire suppression devices are also installed in ballot drop boxes in the county, though they do not appear to have worked well, said Kimsey, who added that they’re going to try to obtain better fire suppression devices.
The Clark County Auditor’s Office will be working to ensure impacted voters have replacement ballots in time, officials said.
This suspicious incident comes on the heels of a Democratic Senate campaign worker being removed from election duties after surveillance footage showed him tampering with a ballot box in Glacier County, Montana, raising security concerns from local election officials.
This is an on going story. Check back for more updates.