Someone has set fire to ballot boxes in Portland Oregon and over the Columbia River in Vancouver Washington in recent weeks.
Hundreds of ballots were destroyed or damaged in fires set Monday at two ballot drop boxes in the Pacific Northwest – and investigators are searching for a person they believe is responsible for both incidents.Almost all the ballots that were damaged or destroyed were in a drop box in Vancouver, Washington, while most ballots in a drop box in Portland, Oregon, survived a fire set the same day, election officials said. The incidents are believed to be connected to a third fire on October 8, also in Vancouver.
The fires came after a US Department of Homeland Security bulletin from September obtained by the watchdog group Property of the People warned: “Some social media users are discussing and encouraging various methods of sabotaging ballot drop boxes and avoiding detection, likely heightening the potential for targeting of this election infrastructure through the 2024 election cycle.”
The fires were started by devices placed outside the drop boxes, authorities said.
Police have a suspect description and say the incendiary devices betray some expertise in metalworking; the devices used bore the phrases “Free Gaza” and “Free Palestine”:
Investigators believe the man who set the incendiary devices at ballot boxes in Portland, Oregon, and nearby Vancouver, Washington, had a “wealth of experience” in metal fabrication and welding, said Portland Police Bureau spokesperson Mike Benner.
The way the devices were constructed and the way they were attached to the metal drop boxes showed that expertise, Benner said.
Authorities described the suspect as a white man, age 30 to 40, who is balding or has very short hair.
Police previously said surveillance video showed the man driving a black or dark-colored 2001 to 2004 Volvo S-60. The vehicle did not have a front license plate, but it did have a rear plate with unknown letters or numbers.
The incendiary devices were marked with the message “Free Gaza,” according to a law enforcement official who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation.
A third device placed at a different drop box in Vancouver earlier this month also carried the words “Free Palestine” in addition to “Free Gaza,” the official said.
If the idea is to destroy votes for Harris the box in Portland would be an obvious target. But Clark County Washington where Vancouver is only leans slightly Democratic, with Vancouver itself being more conservative. The “Free Gaza” inscriptions of course could be an attempt at misdirection. The first link above to DHS intelligence warning of potential drop box sabotage from “domestic violence extremists” comes from a self-described government transparency non-profit, Property of the People, that is focused almost entirely on taking down Donald Trump and is headed by an “animal rights activist” named Ryan Shapiro.
Whether or not it is the work of a foolish rightwinger, a false flag or something else we can expect it to be conflated with the specter of Trump supporters’ “election denial” by the media (the Property of the People memo on DVEs planning to disrupt the election is making the rounds). The narrative that “Maga extremists” are gearing up to repeat 2020 is heating up (so to speak) in preparation for next Tuesday.
Meanwhile antifa in the Northwest are already preparing to riot over a potential Trump victory (or just because), as they did in 2016. Their poster for the planned action in Seattle has some interesting artwork:
2016:
untethered 