Federal officials have been warning that in recent months, some social media users have been encouraging sabotage of ballot drop boxes. "It's a direct attack on democracy," said one local official.

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.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
    28·
    23 days ago

    Churches have been polling places in the U.S. my entire life in every place where I’ve lived.

    You do live in the U.S., right? You’re constantly talking about U.S. politics and rarely anything else. So you either don’t live in the U.S. or you know that and you’re spreading misinformation. I wonder which it is? Because you say “our USPS” but you also call polling places “voting stations.”