Boston ballot box lit on fire, police and FBI investigating
An ABC6 Update
BOSTON, M.A. (WLNE) — Boston Police are asking for the public’s help in identifying a man who they say lit a ballot drop box on fire outside of the Public Library at Copley Square early Sunday morning.
Police say it happened just after 4am Sunday morning, and have released photos of the suspect.
Crews were able to extinguish the fire by filling the ballot box with water.
There were 122 ballots inside at the time, and 35 were destroyed.
87 were still legible and processed.
Secretary of State, William Galvin, is now urging anyone who dropped off a ballot between 2:30pm Saturday and 4:00am Sunday to check the state’s tracking website.
If their ballot cannot be accounted for, they are asked to call the Boston Elections Department immediately.
They will be sent a replacement ballot they can cast early or on election day.
Secretary of State Galvin previously expressed concern about drop box security, and is now urging the state tighten measures with just over one week until election day.
“If at all possible, move them [boxes] inside municipal facilities,” said Galvin. “If necessary down the stretch of this election, if we need to have police officers there, we need to do that and deal with compensation issues later.”
The FBI Boston Division sent a statement Sunday night saying, “For the next several weeks, its is a top priority of our offices to help maintain the integrity of the election process in Massachusetts by aggressively enforcing federal election laws.”
(c) WLNE-TV // ABC 6 2020
