By james art Clark County Auditor Greg Kimsey said workers will begin searching the damaged ballots for voter information to contact them about getting a new ballot.
He said officials believe that although damaged, workers will be able to extract voter information from the ballots.
The damaged ballots were separate from an unknown number that were destroyed, he said.
Incendiary devices damaged and destroyed hundreds of ballots in a ballot box in Vancouver, Washington, and damaged three ballots in a ballot box in Portland, Oregon, in what federal, state and local officials described as an attack on democracy.
Authorities said enough material from the incendiary devices was found to link Monday’s two fires, as well as an incident on Oct. 8 when an incendiary device was placed in another ballot box in Vancouver. No ballots were damaged in this incident.
Surveillance footage captured a Volvo approaching the drop box in Portland just before nearby security personnel discovered a fire in the box, Portland Police Bureau spokesman Mike Benner said. The ignition devices were attached to the outside of the boxes.
U.S. Attorney Tessa Gorman and Greg Austin, acting special agent in charge of the FBI’s Seattle field office, said in a joint statement Tuesday that they want to reassure residents that they are working together to investigate the fires and will work to apprehend the person or persons responsible. persons “fully responsible”.
No arrests had been announced Tuesday night.
A Portland drop box fire was extinguished quickly thanks to an in-box suppression system and a nearby security guard, police said.
A few hours later, another fire was discovered at a drop-box transit center across the Columbia River in Vancouver, the largest city in Washington’s 3rd Congressional District, the site expected to be one of the closest U.S. House races in the country, between first-term Democrat Marie Glusenkamp Perez and Republican challenger Joe Kent.
The Vancouver ballot box also had a fire suppression system inside, but that failed to prevent hundreds of ballots from being burned, according to Mr. Kimsey. He urged voters who dropped their ballots in the transit center box after 11 a.m. Saturday to contact his office for a replacement ballot.
The office is increasing the frequency of ballot collection and changing evening collection times, Mr. Kimsey said, to prevent ballot boxes from remaining full of ballots overnight, when such crimes are considered more likely to occur.
Officials in at least two other Washington counties — including King County, where Seattle is located — announced Tuesday that drop-off ballot boxes will be checked more frequently leading up to Election Day.