this post was submitted on 29 Oct 2024
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In the final stretch before Election Day, ballots have been set on fire and damaged in two ballot drop boxes and a Postal Service mailbox in three states. Federal officials have warned that in recent months, some social media users have encouraged sabotage of ballot drop boxes.

Early on Monday morning in Oregon, Portland police responded to a fire they say was started by "an incendiary device" inside a ballot drop box. Oregon's Multnomah County Elections Division said in a statement that three ballots were damaged. "Fire suppressant inside the ballot box protected virtually all ballots," the statement read.

Hours later, another drop box was set on fire in nearby Vancouver, Washington, where officials say "hundreds" of ballots were badly damaged when that box's fire suppression system failed to work.

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[–] jaggedrobotpubes@lemmy.world 13 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

I can't believe democrats are doing this in equal proportion to republicans!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Edit: !!

[–] finitebanjo@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago

Didnt see any such statements in the article...?

[–] Crackhappy@lemmy.world 62 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

One side. There is only one side actively destroying democracy.

[–] itslilith@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

I'd go even further, if there's only two sides, and one is actively destroying democracy, then they've already succeeded.

[–] Crackhappy@lemmy.world 4 points 3 hours ago (1 children)
[–] itslilith@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Which is by no means a call not to vote. But it should serve as a wake up call, people need to additionally organize their communities and set up support and mutual aid networks before it is to late. Both to avert the worst now, and to demand a better future

[–] Noodle07@lemmy.world 5 points 3 hours ago

Problem is they're busy starving to death working 15 jobs to barely pay rent

[–] django@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 4 hours ago (2 children)

Is this a new low for the US?

[–] Alwaysnownevernotme@lemmy.world 9 points 2 hours ago

We were founded on tax evasion and slavery my dude. This isn't even a bad Tuesday.

[–] Noodle07@lemmy.world 4 points 3 hours ago

They've been digging down every day for ages

[–] gedaliyah@lemmy.world 109 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Just a reminder that this is how election interference starts. One party arbitrarily accuses the other of election interference, then that party's adherents decide to interfere with the election to "even things out." Finally, the party that was falsely accused feels the need to interfere, thus proving the original false accusation. Soon the entire election integrity is undermined.

Only fascists and rival nations benefit from mistrust in democracy.

[–] Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 28 points 8 hours ago (2 children)

Has there been any cases where it was proven that it was Democrat supporters doing it?

[–] skulblaka@sh.itjust.works 16 points 5 hours ago

Not a single time that I've seen reported. But I am not all-knowing.

[–] Tyfud@lemmy.world 17 points 7 hours ago (1 children)
[–] Pips@lemmy.sdf.org 6 points 2 hours ago

So it's really just one party's supporters make a false claim about the other party's supporters so that they can justify doing the made up bad act as well, they do the bad act, and the party whose supporters did not commit that crime continue not committing that crime.

[–] 1800doctorb@lemmy.world 67 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Aggregating some information in this comment based on what I’ve read throughout the internet.

  1. Authorities have identified the vehicle of the one in Oregon (and likely Washington) and probably know who’s behind it at this point. AP News
  2. Authorities have arrested the person responsible for the ballot fires in Phoenix ABC Phoenix
  3. There was a conversation on Truth Social from a user named Elwoodblues50 that suggested doing just this. I have no idea how coordinated it was, but it definitely sounds like something that has been going around right wing circles for a bit. sorry Reddit link
  4. These ballot boxes have measures to protect the ballots in the case of fire. One of the ballot boxes had up to 100 ballots destroyed, the others were in the single digits.
  5. Oregon and Washington both have websites that allow you to check the status of your ballot. If you know anyone in who may have been impacted by this, have them check the websites and request a new ballot if theirs wasn’t accepted. Oregon. Washington
[–] einlander@lemmy.world 35 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

ElwoodBlues50....

I Hate Illinois Nazis.

[–] Baggins@feddit.uk 16 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

The irony would be lost on them.

[–] zaphodb2002@sh.itjust.works 20 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

You're right, but fuck are they stupid. Blues Brothers is about two poor white boys raised in black culture, and is a celebration of said culture. The bad guys are cops, Nazis, and racist bumpkins.

[–] hardcoreufo@lemmy.world 3 points 2 hours ago

They probably only saw Blue's Brothers 2000.

Illinois Nazis

Illinoizis?

[–] 9point6@lemmy.world 122 points 13 hours ago (4 children)

And people will be going to prison for this, right? Ballot boxes will have definitely been put in view of CCTV, right?

[–] finitebanjo@lemmy.world 4 points 2 hours ago

Not only do they have CCTV but also fire suppressing systems, which is why one of the boxes only lost 3 ballots.

[–] kbotc@lemmy.world 9 points 4 hours ago

Yep. Guy was arrested this morning and will be facing interstate felony charges.

I suppose Trump can pardon him if he wins.

[–] atzanteol@sh.itjust.works 21 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) (1 children)

Read says it's important to remember that drop boxes are often under video surveillance and in many places

So, hopefully. Why the weird energy?

[–] Samvega@lemmy.blahaj.zone 32 points 13 hours ago

I hope the people committing these crimes make themselves, and maybe their car license plate, fully visible so they can be recognised and punished.

[–] halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world 78 points 13 hours ago (3 children)

A reminder to everyone if you are mailing or seeing if ballots, nearly every state has a website you can go to check your mailed ballot status. It will usually list the date the ballot was mailed to you, the date they received it back, whether it was accepted, and the batch it was put in for counting.

[–] SuperSaiyanSwag@lemmy.zip 6 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Would it say if it was approved? I sent mine in, but it the pen I was using was dried up and I fucked up my signature a bit.

[–] halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world 4 points 5 hours ago

The info I get from AZ only indicates whether my ballot was accepted which count batch it was added to.

As far as I'm aware, the way it works is they verify your signature on the envelope, then open and confirm the ballot is legible and add it to the count batch. At that point it becomes completely anonymous with every other ballot. Not all of those will end up being useable, some will have issues not caught earlier but that will be a very tiny percentage.

[–] Moops@fedia.io 45 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

You can use TrackVote.org to get to your state's vote status page to verify your vote has been received and counted:
https://trackvote.org

[–] marx2k@lemmy.world 24 points 12 hours ago
[–] Mostly_Gristle@lemmy.world 16 points 12 hours ago

Where I live we have a thing called BallotTrax. You sign up once and it automatically sends you notifications for that stuff so you don't have to remember to check. I really like it.

[–] PaupersSerenade@sh.itjust.works 49 points 12 hours ago

The fact it happened so close together leads me to believe this was something discussed on group chats. I’m hoping that makes it easier to apprehend the perpetrators and also their accomplices. The wheels of justice move so slow, so all the more reason your vote is counted

[–] MapleEngineer@lemmy.world 60 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Why? Why would the Democrats do this?

Oh wait.

[–] nondescripthandle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 16 points 10 hours ago

Id still vote by mail. You can recast a mail ballot if the box was attacked by a terrorist. Its a lot harder to follow your vote through if a terrorist decides to show up at your polling place. Four years ago I said the crazies are coming for the polls because on Jan 6th the only thing they learned is that they can't wait until certification to try and influence the outcome.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 25 points 12 hours ago (3 children)

The really stupid part of this is that it's happening in solidly blue states. People's individual votes won't get counted but it also probably won't change much.

[–] folekaule@lemmy.world 23 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

My thinking is this is not an effort to remove ballots, but to generate doubt about the results as well as create a pretext to restrict voting by mail in the future

[–] Preflight_Tomato@lemm.ee 3 points 3 hours ago

I don't believe they're thinking that abstractly. They know [Blue State] and go there. Maybe a few are smart enough to go to [Swing State] + [Blue Area], but I think it's about affecting the count moreso. It just seems stochastic, so I think the simplest logic is going to be the most common.

[–] greedytacothief@lemmy.world 26 points 12 hours ago (5 children)

Rural Oregon is very red. There's a behind the bastards episode on just how many racists there are in Oregon.

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[–] errer@lemmy.world 8 points 12 hours ago

You’re using logic, that’s beyond these people

[–] Zachariah@lemmy.world 14 points 13 hours ago (6 children)

Have any of the candidates spoken out against this and asked their supporters not to do this?

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