Feds Investigating Fire Set Inside Ballot Drop Box In Boston
Federal authorities are investigating a fire that was set inside a ballot drop box in Boston early Sunday morning after being notified by the state’s secretary of state.
The Boston elections department notified Massachusetts Secretary of State Bill Galvin on Sunday about a fire that was set at about 4 a.m. inside a ballot drop box outside the Boston Public Library in Copley Square, according to Boston Mayor Martin Walsh’s office. City officials last collected ballots from the drop box at 2:29 p.m. Saturday.
The Boston Police Department is conducting an arson investigation into the fire and is working to identify a person caught on surveillance footage igniting something at the drop box. Firefighters extinguished the fire by filling the ballot box with water.
Election officials are working with authorities to take inventory of the ballots collected from the drop box from Saturday afternoon through early Sunday morning. Galvin asked the FBI to investigate the fire and referred the incident to Andrew Lelling, the U.S. attorney for the District of Massachusetts.
BPD Investigating Ballot Box Fire in the area of 700 Boylston Street in Boston. https://t.co/8FYA34H815pic.twitter.com/FNrO1PpEUg
— Boston Police Dept. (@bostonpolice) October 25, 2020
“What happened in the early hours of this morning to the ballot drop box in Copley Square is a disgrace to democracy, a disrespect to the voters fulfilling their civic duty and a crime,” Walsh and Galvin said in a joint statement to HuffPost. “Our first and foremost priority is maintaining the integrity of our elections process and ensuring transparency and trust with our voters, and any effort to undermine or tamper with that process must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
Lelling and FBI Special Agent Joseph Bonavolonta released a joint statement in response, saying federal authorities are now looking into the matter.
