An incident involving an incendiary device placed inside a ballot box caused a fire in Portland, Oregon, early Monday morning, according to the Portland Police Bureau. The authorities received reports of a fire at a ballot box located in the 1000 block of Southeast Morrison Street around 3:30 a.m. local time.
Upon arrival, officers found that the fire had already been extinguished by security personnel in the area. It was determined that the fire was ignited by an incendiary device that had been placed inside the ballot box. The Explosive Disposal Unit of the Portland Police Bureau responded to the scene and safely cleared the device.
Although it remains uncertain whether any ballots were damaged in the fire, the Portland Fire Investigations Unit, consisting of fire investigators from Portland Fire & Rescue and a detective from the Portland Police Bureau, was called in to investigate the incident. This collaborative effort combines specialized skills and resources to analyze fires, including the use of accelerant detecting dogs.
Authorities are treating the incident as an arson case, which occurred shortly after a separate incident in Phoenix where approximately 20 mail-in ballots were damaged due to a U.S. Postal Service mailbox being set on fire. In that case, a suspect has been arrested on a felony count of Arson to Property.
The suspect in the Phoenix incident, Dieter Klofkorn, reportedly stated that his actions were not politically motivated and were not related to the upcoming election. Images from the scene in Phoenix showed a charred mailbox outside a U.S. Post Office in the city.
