Michigan township clerk reassures voters following West Coast ballot drop box fires
CANTON TOWNSHIP, Mich. (CBS DETROIT) - Election security is now a concern after fires at two ballot drop boxes on the West Coast.
The incidents happened Monday in Portland, Oregon and Vancouver, Washington. The Clark County auditor claims fire in Portland only damaged three ballots, but a similar fire just up the road in Vancouver, Washington, is said to have destroyed hundreds more.
Canton Township Clerk Michael Siegrist says their ballot drop boxes are designed to prevent fires, a feature that reportedly failed at the drop box in Washington State.
"You can design a drop box that can extinguish a match on their way in, so we went with American Security Cabinets. We chose the stainless steel ones that are weather resistant knowing full well this could be a possibility," Siegrist said.
Siegrist says they still have other measures in place in case someone tries to tamper with the drop boxes.
"Our drop boxes are video monitored. We check the drop box every single day so that if something were to happen like that the impact would be small in scale and not necessarily impact the outcome of an election," he said.
He says they have a protocol in place to ensure every vote counts if a drop box with ballots inside is damaged.
"First thing I would do is send an email out to every voter who has a ballot issued to them who has not returned their absentee ballot letting them know what drop box was affected and the time. And then that would allow them to contact us if they believe their ballot may have been in that drop box. We can spoil that ballot, get them a new one, and we have time right now before election day to solve that issue," he said.
He says absentee voters can alternatively hand deliver their ballots in person to the clerk's office, take it to an early voting site to tabulate their vote, or even take it to their precinct on election day if they're still hesitant about using the drop box.
He says local municipalities are responsible for deciding which ballot drop boxes are used in a given area.