The ballot drop boxes in Washington and Oregon both have fire suppression systems that are designed to activate when the temperature inside reaches a certain point, coating ballots inside with a fire-suppressing powder.
For unknown reasons, the system failed to prevent the destruction of hundreds of ballots in Vancouver, just across the Columbia River from Portland.
This is the Republican plan to steal the election. When does the civil war start? I give it 6 weeks before the first casualties pile in.
Let’s not normalize it.
Yes you’re right, we should try toning down our rhetoric
Are you kidding? Election day is a week away and an election clerk in San Antonio already got punched for telling somebody to take off his MAGA hat. I’m surprised nobody’s been shot already.
Assuming they catch the shitbags, I see no need for further violence.
If it is a plan, it’s pretty dumb. Of all places this act could sway the results, Oregon and Washington are pretty low on the list.
I doubt anything happens.
We might not hear about it, but there will definitely be consequences for these people when they’re caught.
I was replying to the comment about the civil war starting.
Courts should fast track this one to make an example of them. Arrest them and sentence them this week.
No, you want to wish them a complete and fair due process. Keep them behind bars in accordance with the maximum of sentencing guidelines.
I hate that the Orwellian thought of ballot boxes requiring armed guards just entered my brain, because it just did. It goes against everything democracy is supposed to be, but this is where American fascism has led my thoughts to rot
With a sufficiently not-fucking-around response to the terrorists who did it, betcha won’t need guards.
But America is gonna wrist slap nazis and say please.
You can’t prosecute the meth out of a redneck, America has tried for decades.
There are people who have the basic mammalian capability for aversion association, and people who don’t, these morons are no more capable of learning than ants.
Don’t bother trying to set an example, just use enforced attrition.
I’m sorry but what exactly do you mean by “enforced attrition”.
If I were to run his statement through a different filter he’s stating “it’s in their genes and we need to kill them” but I don’t think he wants to use those words.
Oh yeah, that’s my thoughts as well. Which is weird, it’s not usually something you run into in this context.
I think they’re referring to using punishment less as a deterrent to potential future offenders and more as a way of getting the people who prove themselves incapable of living in a civil society off of the streets. I don’t mean to speak for anyone, that was just my takeaway.
Which is suspiciously close to concentration camps.
You got to Godwin’s Law territory in record time, there. I’m talking about throwing the book at literal fucking terrorists.
See that’s setting an example, which Inverse Parallax specifically said they were done with. Do you see my problem here?
Also concentration camps are not Godwin’s law territory, plenty of other countries have used them, including the US.
It’s not really orwellian.
It’s Oregon, the number of methed up rednecks without shit to do is unimaginable.
Orwellian would be if it were planned, this is just old-fashioned redneck stupidity.
I know, I just hate that this is my headspace regarding what are supposed to be free and democratic elections. It’s an existential kind of dread, and it fucking sucks
Lol, free and fair elections.
Should try voting in the south while brown.
This is the America I knew growing up, it’s weird to see everyone else shocked by it.
Then again, I also feel like the filth leaked out and is trying to follow me :(
Yeah man, let’s just agree this sucks for anyone with any degree of empathy.
I’m white, grew up in Florida and got to witness Bush v Gore firsthand as a teen, the psychic damage messed me up so bad, enough to the point where I started to pay attention and be more politically active.
I’m casting a vote against fascism and racism - We’re in this together
There need to be extraordinary penalties for threatening election workers, intimidating voters, or destroying ballots. How about a minimum 20 year sentence to start?
20 years?
In many countries you get the death sentence for treason like this.
So like Russia, China, North Korea… maybe these aren’t the best role models.
I’d much prefer a rehabilitation system where they tried to make the arsonist a productive member of society and maybe bar them from whatever media was instigating the demand he take action.
I know, right? This sort of thing would get you a neat title like ‘enemy of democracy’ and a suitably unpleasant execution method. Like getting dropped from an aircraft into the ocean.
It’s… probably… good the US doesn’t do it. But that’s definitely the sort of crime you should avoid anywhere outside of the US and Europe.
This used to be one of them.
I’m sorry, have you seen the j6 idiots?
Do you honestly believe they can count to 20 even after taking off their socks?
You can’t beat stupid, you can’t scare stupid, we need to just make voting one of those things they can’t get to easily, ie make the boxes like bank drops, or some other physical means.
Rednecks gonna redneck.
I was thinking life in prison, and we haul them out every year during election season to talk about why they attacked ballot boxes, what they were trying to do, and if their life was worth throwing away for it.
This is terrorism.
Just an FYI, all of these Ballot/Mail Box fires will be pointed to when trump attempts his second coup when he loses. I cant believe I’m casually talking about a future coup attempt in my country…
This will give a fake appearance of legitimacy to his claims. I’m worried…
And actually burns up Harris votes in the process, making it even easier for him.
Fuckety fuck fuck.
While this is a shit move by whoever is doing this, it makes virtually no difference for the presidential election. WA electoral votes are winner-takes-all, and always go Dem. A few burned boxes won’t come close in making a difference for president, Biden won by almost a million votes in the last one. It will probably have a decent effect on local elections though.
You’re right, its a drop in the bucket for votes, but its a bullshit reason to cry “corruption” which we will certainly feel.
True, it’s not exactly like they care about real proof.
Removed by mod
Oh well. Any votes destroyed is bad.
The full plan is detailed here: https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/little-secret-trump-johnson-election/.
Basically, they just need enough States to withhold submitting valid slates of electors, which are due on Dec 11th. If that doesn’t happen, and it lowers the amount of electoral college voters enough so no single candidate has a majority, then the US House gets to decide.
In other words, we’re fully reliant on GOP controlled States doing the right thing. We’re fucked.
Oh wonderful, a new anxiety is unlocked… Though I will say that this wouldn’t happen until mid to late December, and we will have election results around Nov 6-8. This is definitely a much harder gambit with over a month of time knowing the result of the election, that is to say, it’ll be much more clearly a coup than if it happened during election day. Lets just hope this is a landslide for Harris, and the chance of this being a viable option for trump being even lower.
What are these things doing outside? I don’t get that. Put them inside the courthouse, post office, fire station, a million other places they’d be safe from arson.
The problem lies in that people need to access them outside working hours due to their own work schedules, which is ultimately the point of these things. Granted, a fire station,
police station, or even a hospital lobby would be better than outside.Edit: ok, maybe not a police station, but y’all get my point
Police station would be a terrible choice. People who aren’t able to vote on election day skew poor, black, brown, and/or immigrant - exactly the groups who would be (rightly) afraid of entering a police station.
Removed by mod
Hey, mod here. What they are saying is correct. Police intimidation/fear is justified for a large percent of the population, even those that are law-abiding. That’s why the phrase “walking while black” exists.
I urge you to not make these kind of comments, as they detract from the overall conversation. I also urge you to edit or remove this comment, as it violates rule 1.
This response is so wild to me. Nobody even needs to talk to a cop. Having an additional drop off location at a police station is more convenient than not having it. Walk into building, put envelope in box, walk out. Makes sense for any government funded building that’s already required to be staffed 24/7 and monitored by CCTV, the police department included.
Are you just…completely unaware of the racist nature of police in America? What a nice privilege.
Little bit concerned about a police station, both because people might feel intimidated, and votes could get ‘lost’.
Why not just use post boxes? Less of a concentrated target because there’ll be a whole bunch of other letters in there too. At least, I don’t believe my country uses special boxes just for votes
You can drop it in the post but many people are paranoid about it being lost in the mail. The US also suffered a not unnoticeable degradation in the post service under Trump and his post master general pick who is still at his post because he didn’t resign and Biden didn’t fire him.
I still vote in person because of my own anxieties about my vote being counted.
This is very obviously easier said than done, but having mail be reliable seems like a much better way to safeguard this kind of voting, than trying to install massive security around these specialised boxes. Or even having staffed early voting centres would be better than an unattended box.
I’m just looking on (from Australia) and feeling like the way voting is managed in US federal elections is unnecessarily difficult and complicated.
Every state has its own rules, and administers its own vote for a federal election?? (I understand why historically, but this is a really dumb way to run things). Some states use electronic voting, and we have seen what a bad idea this is in terms of ability to claim voter fraud. Even if electronic voting were 100% secure, which it isn’t - it’s way more vulnerable to large scale attack, it’s simply easier to claim fraud when it’s inner-workings a black box. And early voting is done in specific unattended ballot drop boxes, which so, so obviously would become a target.
And this lack of coherent, federally managed elections, also means some states just literally provide way too few places to vote.
Y’all flying by the seat of your pants, and it’s scary, considering how much control over the world, and specifically my country, the US has.
Please advocate for voting reform, it should be the number one priority above all others, because without it, the political system in the US is going to keep being way too fragile. And again, this shit affects us all because of US imperialism.
And this lack of coherent, federally managed elections, also means some states just literally provide way too few places to vote.
We actually do have laws federally to protect voters from disenfranchisement. There are often lawsuits about polling locations, hours of voting, and number of drop boxes. One side is definitely always trying to make it harder to vote, specifically on contested areas.
What I mean is a federal electoral commission that directly administers the entire election, not just sues people who do the wrong thing. We can plainly see how fragile the current arrangement is
In my view there is no argument to be made at all that the states should have any direct involvement in the running the federal election, it’s a federal election.
A federal electoral commission gives you: one consistent set of rules, consistent voting infrastructure, consistent chains of reporting, consistent invigilation and auditing. Ideally also: no politicians picking their own electorate boundaries, no voting machines (for real, please see 2020 and 2000 for how spectacularly those have caused issues, and probably other times, also), no need for as many lawsuits just to get the bare minimum in compliance.
The number of lawsuits is indicative of how badly it’s going.
One side is definitely making it harder to vote, I would definitely agree. I just feel not enough emphasis is given to voting as something that affects the entire political system, and should be the core #1 issue, including where I live in Australia (even if it’s massively in better shape here).
Again, I always feel like a bit of a clown telling someone else in another country how to run it, but US is fair game, given it’s world hegemon status.
Hope y’all can manage to get some sorely needed reform :/
I used a 24hr box for my ballot because I have a job at “normal” hours.
Should not have divulged that, now they’re gonna go in with Rit dye and bleach and shit
Waiting for the car’s MAGA owner to be arrested and prosecuted. Probably expecting an eventual pardon from Bonespurs. Good luck wit dat.
I hope that vehicle ends up in a trash compactor with the occupant inside
I hope they catch the guy alive and we prosecute the asshole and make a public example of this guy who is most likely Republican.
I would bet up to $1k that this guy is Republican, but I don’t actually care what party they belong to. Make an example of them.
yOu HaVe BeEn PeRmAnEnTlY bAnNeD fRoM rEdDiT
ThE lEfT hAs SuCh ViOlEnT rHeToRiC
When ya do sarcastic text, I recommend keeping all of your “i”s lowercase and all your “L”s capital.
…though with autocorrect on a phone, doing so can be a huge pain in the butt, more effort than it’s worth.
Writing in kArEnCaSe is more Karen-y if it’s more annoying to read.
MAGA Terrorist
That wrote “free gaza” on the incendiary devices and drives a Volvo? I mean… maybe, I guess.
Where did you see that info? The article is horrible, but I am pretty sure it never said that.
Try learning about an event by reading more than just one source. See if you can do it all by yourself without someone feeding it to you. I’m rooting for you. Just think, you could have already learned this yourself using Google and it would have taken less time and words than you spent asking for it in your comment.
You don’t have to be a dick about it. We’re all here to converse with each other, not google. Maybe they wanted to engage with another human being instead of a search engine. But instead they got you. Come on, chill out and treat others how you want to be treated. You can do it, I believe in you.
🙄
I was actually surprised that more ballot boxes weren’t being firebombed; I didn’t know they had fire suppression systems and am glad to hear it (and also slightly shocked that they’re necessary; chalk another point on the board for we’ve failed as a society and as a species).
The armed forces have been voting by mail for decades (over a century).
I love the cognitive dissonance of “patriots” who mouth platitudes for those who’ve served, while actively working against the same mechanisms for civilians. Brain morons.
The military voted by mail in the Civil War.
Vote by mail should be a federal mandate, let’s take all the money going to Israel and give it to the USPS instead for upgrades.
My family is kinda split 50/50 politically but everyone spends time in one branch or another. That cognitive dissonance is fucking mind blowing when it’s your relative in uniform spouting the rhetoric of these stochastic terrorist shitbags
Ah yes wiping out hundreds of democrat (and some non Democrat) votes in two of the bluest cities in the north west will surely have an impact on the election.
The Washington district that includes Vancouver has one of the most contested House races in the country this year.
Glusencamp-Perez ran on opposing Biden and working with Republicans.
Kent ran on opposing Perez for being a Democrat.
Absolutely insane.
Hey I just learned about her. Sinema 2.0!
One article I read said that the representative race was much closer. It might not affect the president, but could affect other positions.
This was my first thought. Not only are they evil, they’re also stupid!
fire suppression systems that are designed to activate when the temperature inside reaches a certain point
For unknown reasons, the system failed to prevent the destruction of hundreds of ballots
I don’t think it’s an “unknown” reason; the system requires a fire to have already been lit in order to activate. It’s fire a suppression system, not fire prevention.
The person who wrote the story doesn’t know. It’s unknown to them.
Gee. I wonder if it’s a right winger. As per normal, it’s totally unlikely…
