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Ballot boxes were set on fire in Portland Oregon and in nearby Vancouver, Washington last night.

The Portland Police Bureau said an “incendiary device” was placed inside of a sidewalk ballot box in the Central City district. By the time officers responded to reports at about 3:30 a.m. local time, security personnel in the area had extinguished the flames.

“Officers determined an incendiary device was placed inside the ballot box and used to ignite the fire,” a statement from the Portland police read, adding that the bureau’s Explosive Disposal Unit removed the mechanism.

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A photo posted by the Portland police showed a hole burned in the ballot box. 

Three ballots inside the box were damaged but those voters will be contacted and given an opportunity to vote again. The situation was much worse when a similar incident happened just north in Vancouver, Washington on the same night.

A Vancouver ballot box was burned in an arson Monday morning, authorities report…

KATU was on the scene at Fisher’s Landing Transit Center in Vancouver shortly after 4 a.m., where heavy smoke was seen coming from inside a drop-off ballot box.

After an hour or more, they finally cracked open the box and spread out a pile of burning ballots on the sidewalk.

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Officials there don’t have a count on how many ballots were destroyed but the estimate is hundreds.

Clark County Auditor Greg Kimsey, who administers elections in the area, said hundreds of ballots had been destroyed, but he did not know exactly how many. Officials will sort through them so they can contact some of the affected voters, but he said there is no way to know who many of the ballots belonged to. Voters who dropped off their ballots after 11 a.m. Saturday should contact his office to receive a new ballot, he said…

The ballots that were destroyed in Vancouver inject a new element of uncertainty into one of the most closely watched congressional races in the country. Democratic Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez faces a challenge from Republican Joe Kent, whom she beat by 1 percentage point two years ago. In social media posts, both candidates urged voters to ensure their ballots were received by election officials.

Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs (D) said a suspected incendiary device was placed in the ballot drop box in Vancouver. The FBI is among the law enforcement agencies that responded to the scene, he said.

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No one is saying that both incidents were carried out by the same person or persons but that seems like a strong possibility giving the timing and the short distance between the two incidents. Obviously this would not be a good trend and will only make people more nervous about using these drop boxes. Here’s a local news report on the two arson scenes.