[direwolf]

Ballot box set on fire in LA. I'm sure we'll be seeing a lot more this kind of crap over the next couple of weeks.



https://www.latimes.com/california/s...k-may-be-arson

On Sunday night, officers with the Baldwin Park Police Department took custody of the seared, soaked ballots, which were set to be transferred to the Los Angeles County registrar-recorder’s office on Monday to see what could be salvaged.


It was not immediately clear how the fire began, but Los Angeles County Fire Department spokeswoman Leslie Lua said arson is being investigated as a possible cause. If confirmed, she said, it would be the first instance of ballot box arson in the county.


In an already contentious election season, officials are hoping it will also be the last.


“It angers me,” Baldwin Park Mayor Manuel Lozano said Monday. “You’re literally denying someone’s constitutional right to vote, and that’s unacceptable.”



Lozano said as many as 100 ballots may have been in the box at the time of its ignition.

The fire comes amid record-breaking voter turnout in California: More than 3.7 million ballots have already been cast in the state, far exceeding mail-in ballot numbers from the same point in previous state elections. Nearly 1 million of those ballots have been from L.A. County.



But the turnout is not without controversy. The California Republican Party has claimed responsibility for several unofficial ballot boxes that have popped up across the state in recent weeks. Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra and Secretary of State Alex Padilla called the boxes fake and misleading, but the GOP has defied cease-and-desist orders, claiming the unofficial boxes are legal under a 2016 state law that allows third parties to collect ballots on voters’ behalf.



But the burning of the Baldwin Park ballot box goes far beyond slippery legal loopholes. Calling the blaze “an attack on our democracy,” L.A. County Supervisor Janice Hahn said she is now requesting that all ballot boxes be emptied nightly through election day, which is just over two weeks away. Ballot boxes were previously emptied only every 72 hours.