By james art 
After a pre-election arson attack last November that fired hundreds of ballots into a swath of southwest Washington, state lawmakers are looking at modest ways to better secure the boxes.
On Friday, the state Senate caucus advanced a bill to include drop-in messages for criminal penalties for tampering with them.
Senate Bill 5011 would require each visible side of ballot boxes to display two messages. One would note that the box is owned by the county that bought the box. The other would state tampering with the box could violate state and federal law.
The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Jeff Wilson, R-Longview, said he deliberately set fire to Vancouver before the election inspired the legislation.
“What’s in those boxes is the most valuable thing that I can certainly think of, which is everybody’s vote,” Wilson told the Senate State Government, Tribal Affairs and Elections Committee last week. “That individual’s vote must be protected and guarded.”
Some wonder if the signs alone will deter bad actors.
Wilson thinks he can help. “Etiquette matters,” he said.
Authorities have yet to arrest anyone in the October attacks on drop-in ballots in Vancouver, Washington, and Portland, Oregon. The FBI is offering a $25,000 reward for information leading to a conviction in the ballot box fires.
Early on the morning of Oct. 8, someone in a Volvo S-60 sedan planted an incendiary device in a downtown Vancouver trash can, causing minor damage, according to the FBI. On Oct. 28, officials believe the same suspect placed similar devices in two more boxes, one in Vancouver and one in Portland.
The Vancouver fire damaged nearly 500 ballots just days before the election. The Portland fire damaged only three.
The devices used thermite, a mixture of metal filings and iron oxide, authorities said last week.
Brian Hatfield, the secretary of state’s legislative director, called the actions “terrorism”. Hatfield, a former state lawmaker, said the bill “at least speaks to the issue and says we need to do something.”
Washington has between 545 and 560 drop boxes. Officials project the new labeling proposed under Wilson’s bill would cost about $1,000 for each can.
But the price may vary depending on the county. For example, Kittitas County paid $222 to wrap each of its nine boxes, while King County estimated it would cost $1,350 per box.
Hatfield said he hopes the state will budget money to reimburse the counties for the tags.
Greg Kimsey, the auditor for Clark County, where Vancouver is located, said in an interview Friday that he doesn’t see the harm in adding the tags.
But “I’m also not sure it does much in the way of deterring someone from bad behavior,” he added.
Another measure Wilson proposed, Senate Bill 5010, would create a grant program in the Secretary of State’s Office for counties to install cameras around the polls. This bill has not been scheduled for a public hearing.
Kimsey said Clark County is already working to install cameras at each of its drops in this year’s general election. The fires last October spurred the effort.