Burning a right: Ballot box fires are a symptom of a deep problem

Officials in Washington and Oregon are looking for a person who appears to have set two ballot drop boxes on fire in the states, damaging already-submitted ballots. This person should be swiftly caught and prosecuted to the full weight of the law.

There were certainly voted ballots in these boxes for Donald Trump, just as there were for Kamala Harris. While these incidents of arson and — let’s call it what it is — domestic terrorism will not alter the presidential election in these states, they absolutely could impact local elections that can come down to lower margins. In any case, the effect on the vote totals is sort of beyond the point. These crimes have targeted one of the most fundamental tenets of our country, and in doing so robbed some voters of their rights.

Officials in Clark County, Washington, where the bulk of the damage was done, have said that nearly 500 damaged ballots could have enough information to identify the voters in question and contact them about submitting a new ballot. Certainly, some voters will get an option for redress, but some will miss the chance or otherwise not be able to resubmit. An unknown number of other ballots were completely destroyed, meaning that there will be no opportunity to fix the damage. The votes and the right they represent are quite simply lost, and will not be counted.

Presidential elections are always hotly contested, a natural outgrowth of our tradition of democratic self-determination. But they are not supposed to be dangerous. Election offices should not require guards and panic buttons. Threats should not be part of the job description of the dedicated workers who keep our election machinery churning. These are things that happen when democracy itself is shaky — countries with emerging democracies and traditions of authoritarianism, or perhaps those going the other way.

There don’t need to be many such incidents to create a real fear and sense that our system is teetering on the edge. Campaign and election workers hear that a man who allegedly shot at a DNC office in the Phoenix suburbs — on three separate occasions, forcing the office to close — was arrested with more than 120 guns, 250,000 rounds of ammunition, body armor, silencers, potential biohazard materials and plans for mass casualties, and they understand themselves to be at risk. Faced with such a threat, they have good reason to worry.

When we happened to be in Pennsylvania last week, the TV was filled with presidential (and Senate and U.S. House) campaign ads by both sides, which is expected in the mostly highly contested state with the largest number of electoral votes. However, what was very disturbing was the top story on the local TV news of one the network affiliates was that the local election office was installing thick plastic sheeting to prevent their windows from being shattered if hit by gunfire.

Flipping channels to local news on another network affiliate, their top story was that since voters were wary about the security of their ballots in isolated and unwatched drop boxes (this was before arson in the Pacific Northwest arson) additional staffed locations for drop boxes were being added.

We should be celebrating our elections, not having Americans be afraid to vote or fearful that their ballots won’t be secure.