The ballot drop boxes in Washington and Oregon both have fire suppression systems that are designed to activate when the temperature inside reaches a certain point, coating ballots inside with a fire-suppressing powder.
For unknown reasons, the system failed to prevent the destruction of hundreds of ballots in Vancouver, just across the Columbia River from Portland.
Just an FYI, all of these Ballot/Mail Box fires will be pointed to when trump attempts his second coup when he loses. I cant believe I’m casually talking about a future coup attempt in my country…
This will give a fake appearance of legitimacy to his claims. I’m worried…
And actually burns up Harris votes in the process, making it even easier for him.
Fuckety fuck fuck.
While this is a shit move by whoever is doing this, it makes virtually no difference for the presidential election. WA electoral votes are winner-takes-all, and always go Dem. A few burned boxes won’t come close in making a difference for president, Biden won by almost a million votes in the last one. It will probably have a decent effect on local elections though.
A lot of my Slavic people live there and they’re voting red. Unless it’s closer to the freeway I guess it’d be bluer there. But still. I wouldn’t think that these are filled to the brim with Harris votes
Oh well. Any votes destroyed is bad.
Gee. I wonder if it’s a right winger. As per normal, it’s totally unlikely…
Watch, this dude is going to be an off duty cop and the PPB will come out to accuse the red ballot boxes of not “backing da blue”
Vancouver?? I told yall that foreigners were voting in our elections!!!
/s very much needed, as some moron on Facebook is 100% sincerely saying the same thing right now.
This is terrorism.
This seems like an election fraud crime done by a poor person, so there will likely be consequences.
Failed state shit.
I hope that vehicle ends up in a trash compactor with the occupant inside
I hope they catch the guy alive and we prosecute the asshole and make a public example of this guy who is most likely Republican.
I would bet up to $1k that this guy is Republican, but I don’t actually care what party they belong to. Make an example of them.
I hate that the Orwellian thought of ballot boxes requiring armed guards just entered my brain, because it just did. It goes against everything democracy is supposed to be, but this is where American fascism has led my thoughts to rot
With a sufficiently not-fucking-around response to the terrorists who did it, betcha won’t need guards.
But America is gonna wrist slap nazis and say please.
You can’t prosecute the meth out of a redneck, America has tried for decades.
There are people who have the basic mammalian capability for aversion association, and people who don’t, these morons are no more capable of learning than ants.
Don’t bother trying to set an example, just use enforced attrition.
I’m sorry but what exactly do you mean by “enforced attrition”.
If I were to run his statement through a different filter he’s stating “it’s in their genes and we need to kill them” but I don’t think he wants to use those words.
Oh yeah, that’s my thoughts as well. Which is weird, it’s not usually something you run into in this context.
It’s not really orwellian.
It’s Oregon, the number of methed up rednecks without shit to do is unimaginable.
Orwellian would be if it were planned, this is just old-fashioned redneck stupidity.
I know, I just hate that this is my headspace regarding what are supposed to be free and democratic elections. It’s an existential kind of dread, and it fucking sucks
Lol, free and fair elections.
Should try voting in the south while brown.
This is the America I knew growing up, it’s weird to see everyone else shocked by it.
Then again, I also feel like the filth leaked out and is trying to follow me :(
There need to be extraordinary penalties for threatening election workers, intimidating voters, or destroying ballots. How about a minimum 20 year sentence to start?
I was thinking life in prison, and we haul them out every year during election season to talk about why they attacked ballot boxes, what they were trying to do, and if their life was worth throwing away for it.
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20 years?
In many countries you get the death sentence for treason like this.
I know, right? This sort of thing would get you a neat title like ‘enemy of democracy’ and a suitably unpleasant execution method. Like getting dropped from an aircraft into the ocean.
It’s… probably… good the US doesn’t do it. But that’s definitely the sort of crime you should avoid anywhere outside of the US and Europe.
So like Russia, China, North Korea… maybe these aren’t the best role models.
I’d much prefer a rehabilitation system where they tried to make the arsonist a productive member of society and maybe bar them from whatever media was instigating the demand he take action.
I’m sorry, have you seen the j6 idiots?
Do you honestly believe they can count to 20 even after taking off their socks?
You can’t beat stupid, you can’t scare stupid, we need to just make voting one of those things they can’t get to easily, ie make the boxes like bank drops, or some other physical means.
Rednecks gonna redneck.
Courts should fast track this one to make an example of them. Arrest them and sentence them this week.
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I think you’re seeing the reflection of your monitor, you can stop posting that everywhere.
No, you want to wish them a complete and fair due process. Keep them behind bars in accordance with the maximum of sentencing guidelines.
This is the Republican plan to steal the election. When does the civil war start? I give it 6 weeks before the first casualties pile in.
Let’s not normalize it.
Are you kidding? Election day is a week away and an election clerk in San Antonio already got punched for telling somebody to take off his MAGA hat. I’m surprised nobody’s been shot already.
Assuming they catch the shitbags, I see no need for further violence.
I doubt anything happens.
We might not hear about it, but there will definitely be consequences for these people when they’re caught.
I was replying to the comment about the civil war starting.
What are these things doing outside? I don’t get that. Put them inside the courthouse, post office, fire station, a million other places they’d be safe from arson.
I used a 24hr box for my ballot because I have a job at “normal” hours.
The problem lies in that people need to access them outside working hours due to their own work schedules, which is ultimately the point of these things. Granted, a fire station,
police station, or even a hospital lobby would be better than outside.Edit: ok, maybe not a police station, but y’all get my point
Why not just use post boxes? Less of a concentrated target because there’ll be a whole bunch of other letters in there too. At least, I don’t believe my country uses special boxes just for votes
You can drop it in the post but many people are paranoid about it being lost in the mail. The US also suffered a not unnoticeable degradation in the post service under Trump and his post master general pick who is still at his post because he didn’t resign and Biden didn’t fire him.
I still vote in person because of my own anxieties about my vote being counted.
This is very obviously easier said than done, but having mail be reliable seems like a much better way to safeguard this kind of voting, than trying to install massive security around these specialised boxes. Or even having staffed early voting centres would be better than an unattended box.
I’m just looking on (from Australia) and feeling like the way voting is managed in US federal elections is unnecessarily difficult and complicated.
Every state has its own rules, and administers its own vote for a federal election?? (I understand why historically, but this is a really dumb way to run things). Some states use electronic voting, and we have seen what a bad idea this is in terms of ability to claim voter fraud. Even if electronic voting were 100% secure, which it isn’t - it’s way more vulnerable to large scale attack, it’s simply easier to claim fraud when it’s inner-workings a black box. And early voting is done in specific unattended ballot drop boxes, which so, so obviously would become a target.
And this lack of coherent, federally managed elections, also means some states just literally provide way too few places to vote.
Y’all flying by the seat of your pants, and it’s scary, considering how much control over the world, and specifically my country, the US has.
Please advocate for voting reform, it should be the number one priority above all others, because without it, the political system in the US is going to keep being way too fragile. And again, this shit affects us all because of US imperialism.
Police station would be a terrible choice. People who aren’t able to vote on election day skew poor, black, brown, and/or immigrant - exactly the groups who would be (rightly) afraid of entering a police station.
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Are you just…completely unaware of the racist nature of police in America? What a nice privilege.
Hey, mod here. What they are saying is correct. Police intimidation/fear is justified for a large percent of the population, even those that are law-abiding. That’s why the phrase “walking while black” exists.
I urge you to not make these kind of comments, as they detract from the overall conversation. I also urge you to edit or remove this comment, as it violates rule 1.
This response is so wild to me. Nobody even needs to talk to a cop. Having an additional drop off location at a police station is more convenient than not having it. Walk into building, put envelope in box, walk out. Makes sense for any government funded building that’s already required to be staffed 24/7 and monitored by CCTV, the police department included.
Little bit concerned about a police station, both because people might feel intimidated, and votes could get ‘lost’.
fire suppression systems that are designed to activate when the temperature inside reaches a certain point
For unknown reasons, the system failed to prevent the destruction of hundreds of ballots
I don’t think it’s an “unknown” reason; the system requires a fire to have already been lit in order to activate. It’s fire a suppression system, not fire prevention.
The person who wrote the story doesn’t know. It’s unknown to them.
Ah yes wiping out hundreds of democrat (and some non Democrat) votes in two of the bluest cities in the north west will surely have an impact on the election.
The Washington district that includes Vancouver has one of the most contested House races in the country this year.
Glusencamp-Perez ran on opposing Biden and working with Republicans.
Kent ran on opposing Perez for being a Democrat.
Absolutely insane.
Hey I just learned about her. Sinema 2.0!
One article I read said that the representative race was much closer. It might not affect the president, but could affect other positions.
