First someone didn’t want Latinos in a Los Angeles suburb to vote.
“The arson of an official ballot drop box by the Baldwin Park Library in the First District has all the signs of an attempt to disenfranchise voters and call into question the security of our elections,” said Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda L. Solis in a statement.
A local resident noticed smoke pouring from a ballot drop box at a public library around 8 p.m. on Sunday, October 18, 2020, and when firefighters responded, they squirted water into the slot, then cut open the box and retrieved approximately 200 damaged ballots.
Election officials said they will try to identify and notify those voters, and send them replacement ballots. The last pickup from that box occurred Saturday morning, and in response to the arson, officials said they will do daily pickups from now on. (Read story here.)
The drop box is one of about 400 in Los Angeles county, and is in a heavily Democratic area. Torching a couple hundred ballots wouldn’t hand California’s electoral votes to Trump, but could impact close local races. The incident occurred in the general area where Republicans have been setting up unauthorized ballot collection boxes (read that story here).
Then, around 4 a.m. on Sunday, October 25, 2020, two suspects (photo, left) were caught on surveillance video setting a ballot drop box outside the Boston Public Library on fire, damaging 122 ballots (read story here). The FBI is investigating that arson.
Update (10/26/20): A local resident with a previous criminal record was arrested in the Boston fire, but there’s no information yet about a possible motive (read story here).
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