Police said Monday that a “suspect vehicle” has been identified in connection with incendiary devices that set fires to ballot drop boxes in Oregon and Washington state.
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00:00I'm in Portland, Oregon, standing at the site where a ballot drop box was set on fire early
00:05Monday morning.
00:07Local authorities say an incendiary device was attached to the outside of the ballot
00:11drop box, causing it to catch fire.
00:14There was a fire suppressant inside the ballot box, which prevented most of the ballots from
00:18being damaged.
00:19Only three ballots were damaged and elections officials say they have contacted those three
00:24people about getting replacement ballots.
00:27However, it was a different story on the other side of the Columbia River, just across the
00:31Washington state line in the city of Vancouver, where another ballot box caught fire Monday
00:35morning and hundreds of ballots were lost.
00:39An incendiary device had previously been placed at another Vancouver ballot drop box earlier
00:45in the month, and authorities said Monday that they believe the three incidents appear
00:50to be connected.
00:51Detectives at PPB are working very closely with our partners at Portland Fire and Rescue,
00:57Vancouver PD, the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office, elections, and the FBI.
01:02And through that collaboration and analysis of surveillance footage, we have identified
01:08a suspect vehicle connected to this.
01:11There was enough evidence collected at all three scenes that lead us to believe that
01:16all three incidents are connected, and we cannot get into more detail.
01:20I've been with Multnomah County elections for 16 years.
01:23I've been in elections for 22 years.
01:26This is the first time any incident has occurred, as far as I'm aware, at the elections building
01:32or in any position I've ever held.
01:35Please do not let today's incidents or anything that happens between now and election day
01:40to keep you from expressing yourself with your vote.
01:43Our democracy depends on you, and you can depend on us to keep this process safe and
01:49secure.
01:51The best thing you can do to support our elections workers is to vote early, so please keep those
01:57ballots rolling in.
01:58Washington and Oregon are both vote-by-mail states.
02:02Voters receive their ballots in the mail and can send them back through the mail or can
02:06drop them at ballot drop boxes.