By admin 
Newly released photos from the Clark County Elections Office show the extent of Monday morning attack at a ballot box in East Vancouver. Hundreds of ballots with scorched edges and burns are displayed spread across a table.
The FBI is investigating the arsons, which targeted two ballot drop boxes in Vancouver and Portland early Monday and another in Vancouver earlier this month.
“The U.S. Attorney’s Office and the FBI want to assure our communities that we are working closely and expeditiously to investigate the two ballot box fires in Vancouver, Washington and Portland, Oregon, and that we will work to detain anyone . is fully responsible,” said a statement Tuesday from U.S. Attorney Tessa M. Gorman and Greg Austin, acting special agent in charge of the FBI’s Seattle field office.
The New York Times reported early Tuesday that the firebombs found at polls in Vancouver and Portland on Monday were both marked with the words “Free Gaza.” A device found at a third ballot box earlier this month, Vancouver also featured the words “Free Palestine,” the New York Times reported, attributing the information to “law enforcement officials.”
The FBI office in Seattle would not confirm or deny the reports when asked by The Columbian.
Vancouver police removed the smoldering ballots from the mailbox at C-Tran’s Fisher’s Landing Transit Center around 4 a.m. Monday, according to a statement from the agency. The drop box fire suppression system is not activated.
According to a statement, Portland police were called to the 1000 block of Southeast Morrison Street around 3:30 a.m. for reports of a fire at a ballot box. The polling place is located on the same block as the Multnomah County Elections Division building.
Multnomah County Elections Director Tim Scott told the Associated Press that the fire extinguisher in the mailbox protected almost all of the ballots; only three were damaged.
A suspect driving a Volvo was caught on a surveillance camera near the polls in Portland, according to the Portland Police Bureau. Investigators have enough evidence, based on materials recovered from ballot boxes, to link the vehicle to Monday morning’s arson in east Vancouver and the device found at a ballot box in downtown Vancouver on Oct. 8.
All 22 Polls in Clark County will now be staffed 24/7 by observers from the Clark County Elections Officeand the Clark County Sheriff’s Office and Vancouver Police will increase patrols around polling locations.
Anyone who dropped off a ballot in the Fisher’s Landing Transit Center mailbox between 11 a.m. Saturday morning and Monday morning can contact the elections office for a replacement ballot at clark.wa.gov/elections564-397-2345 or [email protected]. They can also visit the election office downtown.