Officials are investigating a potential arson after an official ballot drop box in California caught fire.
The fire was discovered Sunday evening in Baldwin Park, a city of about 75,000 people in the southern part of the state, when smoke was seen billowing from the depository, according to CBS Los Angeles. The cause of the fire is still unknown and is being investigated for arson.
Firefighters had to put a hose through the slot of the drop box to douse the flames and later used a chainsaw to split open the box. Somewhere between 60 and 100 ballots are thought to have been damaged by the fire.
The Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder’s Office put out a news release about the incident on Monday. The office said it has referred the incident to the FBI and the attorney general’s office for investigation.
“The Registrar’s office has acquired and is reviewing all material collected to determine the appropriate notifications to voters whose ballots may have been impacted and will ensure they can exercise their fundamental right to vote,” the news release said.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis referred to the blaze as an “arson” and asserted that the incident has “all the signs of an attempt to disenfranchise voters and call into question the security of our elections.”
Ballots in the box were last collected on Saturday at about 10:10 a.m., and the Registrar-Recorder’s Office is encouraging any voters who may have dropped off a ballot after that time to contact the office. The drop box location has been closed since the fire.
The California Republican Party has generated controversy for the placement of unauthorized ballot drop boxes across the state, according to NPR. Last week, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and Secretary of State Alex Padilla, both Democrats, announced that the party agreed to change its ballot collection strategies by not placing the boxes outdoors, not marking the boxes as “official,” and not leaving them unattended.
The California GOP said it would continue to collect ballots at party offices and place them in secured boxes that have volunteers and staff watching over them.
The 2020 election has featured surging numbers of mail-in ballots given the coronavirus pandemic. President Trump has frequently hit at the widespread use of mail-in ballots over concerns that it could better facilitate voter fraud.
