CANTON TOWNSHIP, Mich. (CBS DETROIT) – The security of the elections is now a concern fires at two ballot boxes on the West Coast.
The incidents occurred Monday in Portland, Oregon and Vancouver, Washington. The Clark County auditor claims a fire in Portland damaged only three ballots, but a similar fire further afield in Vancouver, Washington, would have destroyed hundreds more.
Canton Township Clerk Michael Siegrist says their ballot boxes are designed to prevent fires, a feature that reportedly failed at the mailbox in Washington state.
“You can design a drop box that can extinguish a match if it comes in, so we opted for American safety cabinets. We opted for stainless steel ones that are weather resistant, knowing that this could be a possibility,” Siegrist said.
Siegrist says they have other measures in place in case someone tries to tamper with the mailboxes.
“Our drop boxes are monitored by video. We monitor the drop box every day so that if something like this were to happen, the impact would be minor in magnitude and not necessarily affect the outcome of an election,” he said.
He says they have a protocol to ensure every vote counts if a mailbox with ballots in it gets damaged.
“The first thing I would do is send an email to any voter who has been issued a ballot and has not returned their absentee ballot to let them know which drop box is affected and at what time. And then they can contact us if they think their ballot was in that mailbox. We can spoil that ballot, get them a new ballot, and now we have time before Election Day to fix that problem,” he said.
He says absentee voters can also drop off their ballot in person at the clerk’s office, take it to an early voting location to have their vote tabulated, or even take it to their precinct on Election Day if they’re still hesitant to use the mailbox. .
He says local municipalities are responsible for deciding which ballot boxes are used in a given area.