Elections staff have been able to identify 488 damaged ballots retrieved from the ballot box
VANCOUVER – Clark County Auditor Greg Kimsey has released photos of the ballots burned in a fire in the ballot drop box located at the Fisher’s Landing C-TRAN Transit Center at 3510 SE 164th Ave. during the early morning hours on Monday (Oct. 28).
Elections staff have been able to identify 488 damaged ballots retrieved from the ballot box. As of Tuesday evening, Oct. 29, 345 of those identified voters had already contacted the Elections Office to request a replacement ballot. Elections staff will mail 143 ballots to the additional identified voters tomorrow, Thursday, Oct. 31.
Elections personnel were unable to identify 6 of the ballots. Other ballots may have been completely burned to ash, and therefore, unidentifiable.
“I appreciate everyone’s understanding and patience as we work through this unprecedented event,” said County Auditor Greg Kimsey. “We have taken action that I hope will increase voters’ confidence in using the county’s ballot drop boxes.”
Election workers updated their retrieval schedule for the drop boxes and now pick up ballots prior to 5:30 p.m. each day. Ballots deposited prior to that time will be received at the Elections Office that same day.
The Clark County Sheriff’s Office and the Vancouver Police Department have increased patrols around ballot drop box locations as their calls for service allow.
In addition to an increased law enforcement presence, Clark County Elections Office employees now serve as ballot box observers 24 hours a day, seven days a week at each of the 22 drop boxes throughout the county. Employees will not confront anyone. They are there to observe and report any suspicious activities to the proper authorities.
Kimsey stressed that voters have options in addition to using ballot drop boxes for making sure their ballots are delivered to Elections by 8 p.m. on Election Day, Nov. 5.
- Voters can mail ballots via USPS, postage free using the envelope that came with their ballot. Ballots delivered via USPS must be postmarked no later than Nov. 5.
- Voters also can deliver their ballots directly to the Elections Office at 1408 Franklin St.
Voters are reminded to only use official ballot drop off locations or USPS. Official locations are those listed on the Elections website.
Auditor Kimsey also reassures the community that the procedure for processing ballots does not allow for duplicate ballots to be counted for the same voter.
More information is available in an Oct. 28 news release.
Information provided by Clark Co. WA Communications.
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It IS unprecedented and it all happened on Kimsey’s watch. This very well could have been avoided if we had cameras on all ballot boxes. Kimsey vigorously opposed cameras but there’s little doubt that if we had cameras on the Oct. 8th attack, law enforcement would certainly had info needed to pursue the culprit(s) and catch them before this week. The Elections Dept staff are doing a great job but Auditor Kimsey has failed those almost 500 voters and all the others that have now lost confidence in leaving their ballots at County boxes.
“Other ballots may have been completely burned to ash, and therefore, unidentifiable.” How large was the ash pile? How long had it burned? The number of ballots that completely burned to ash is unknown by the county, thus the total number of ballots is unknown, could be much higher than almost 500. Voters whose ballots are now ashes cannot be directly contacted by the County Auditor.
Mon, Oct 28th KATU news posted on scene video and description of the 2-hour ballot box fire at Fishers’ Landing in Vancouver, WA..
” shortly after 4 a.m., where heavy smoke was seen coming from inside a drop-off ballot box.”
“Around 6 a.m., KATU captured footage of first responders releasing a pile of actively burning ballots onto the ground, which continued to smolder and smoke heavily even after the flames were put out.
The Clark County elections auditor told us that the last ballot pickup at that location was 11 a.m. Saturday.” Oct. 26
Only one way to avoid this happening again is to go to in person voting at official poling places. Let’s face it mail in voting is a failed experiment and get back to safe, secure, and honest elections.