By GENE JOHNSON and CLAIRE RUSH

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Incendiary devices were set off Monday at two ballot boxes — one in Portland and another in nearby Vancouver, Washington — destroying hundreds of ballots in what an official called “direct attack on democracy” about a week ago. before a stormy election day.

The early morning fire at the drop box in Portland was quickly extinguished by a suppression system inside the box as well as a nearby security guard, police said, and only three ballot papers were damaged there.

But hours later, another fire was discovered at a drop box at a transit center across the Columbia River in Vancouver. Vancouver is the largest city in Washington’s 3rd Congressional District, the site of what should be one of the closest American House races in the country, between Democratic Representative Marie Gluesenkamp Perez and her Republican challenger Joe Kent.

The Vancouver ballot box was also equipped with a fire suppression system, but it failed to prevent hundreds of ballots from burning, said Greg Kimsey, a longtime elected auditor in Clark County, Washington, which includes Vancouver. He urged voters who placed their ballots in the transit center box after 11 a.m. Saturday to contact his office for a replacement ballot.

“Heartbreaking,” Kimsey said. “This is a direct attack on democracy.”

The office will increase the frequency of ballot collection and change collection times to evenings, Kimsey said, to prevent drop boxes from remaining full of ballots overnight, when similar crimes are considered more likely to happen.

The ballot boxes have come under increasing criticism from Republicans and have been the subject of criticism. baseless right-wing conspiracy theories in recent years, linked to former President Donald Trump’s lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him. A Associated Press survey of state election officials in the United States found that there were no widespread problems with drop boxes in 2020, and none could have affected the results.

Six states have banned ballot drop boxes since 2020: Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina and South Dakota, according to a study by the Voting Rights Lab, which advocates for expanded access to voting . Other states have restricted their use, including Ohio and Iowa, which now allow only one drop box per county, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.

Washington and Oregon, which both practice mail-in voting, have a long history of using ballot drop boxes.

Authorities said at a news conference in Portland that enough material from the incendiary devices had been recovered to show that Monday’s two fires were related — and that they were also linked to an incident on Oct. 8, when an incendiary device was placed during a different election. drop box in Vancouver. No ballots were damaged in this incident.

Surveillance footage captured a Volvo stopping at a drop box in Portland, Oregon, just before nearby security personnel discovered a fire inside the box on Monday, the door said -Portland Police Bureau spokesperson Mike Benner during a press conference. The incendiary devices were attached to the outside of the crates.

The FBI was also investigating.

Fire suppression systems inside voting drop boxes in Washington and Oregon were designed to activate when the temperature inside reached a certain point, coating the ballots with vote for a fire-fighting powder.

The system appeared to have worked at the Portland drop box and security guards were nearby to help put out the fire. Multnomah County Elections Director Tim Scott said the county has hired private security guards to organize “roving patrols” who travel the county 24 hours a day and “monitor” all drop boxes.

He said one of the guards was at the county election office, heard what sounded like an explosion — likely the activation of the fire suppression system — and called police.

For unknown reasons, the system failed to prevent the destruction of hundreds of ballots in Vancouver.

Gluesenkamp Perez said in a statement that she is requesting a nightly law enforcement presence posted at all Clark County polls through Election Day.

“Southwest Washington cannot risk losing a single vote to arson and political violence,” his statement said.

In a video posted on social platform X, Kent also condemned “this cowardly act of terrorism.” He said he trusts law enforcement to find out who was responsible, urged voters to make sure their ballots are counted and said he continues to have faith in the ballot box system elections in Washington.

“No one should be intimidated,” Kent said.

Voters were encouraged to check the status of their ballot online at www.votewa.gov to track its return status. If a returned ballot is not marked as “received,” voters can print a replacement ballot or visit the local elections department to obtain a replacement, the secretary of state’s office said.