Politics
I’m an election law expert. Here’s what happens when ballots are burned.
News of arson fires that started Monday in ballot boxes in Vancouver, Washington, and in Portland, Oregon, show that not all threats to the integrity of our elections come from well-organized militias or foreign governments. The Portland Police Bureau has already released photos of a vehicle authorities say was involved with at least one of the incidents, and possibly others. “We don’t know the motive behind these acts,” Assistant Chief Amanda McMillan said in a statement. “We do know acts like this are targeted and they’re intentional and we’re concerned about that intentional act trying to impact the election process. We’re dedicated to stopping this kind of behavior.”
That’s good to hear. Clearly, there are individuals determined to wreak havoc on our elections. And federal and state authorities need to extinguish this kind of violence before things get more out of hand.
Even if any ballots were destroyed in this week’s fires, voters should still be able to cast replacements.
In Oregon, the Multnomah County Elections Division said in a statement that “fire suppressant inside the ballot box protected virtually all the ballots.” Three ballots were damaged, and county Elections Director Tim Scott said the affected voters were being contacted.
But even if any ballots were destroyed in this week’s fires, voters should still be able to cast replacements.
Voters in Oregon and Washington are lucky enough to live in states with excellent election administration, including elaborate systems to track the path of one’s ballot from the time it is sent to a voter until the time it is received by election officials. Voters who might have put their ballots in one of the affected ballot boxes will have ample opportunity to contact election officials and get and then cast replacement ballots, assuring that they won’t be disenfranchised by this despicable antidemocratic act.
But there could be other attempts to interfere with the 2024 election over the next week that might not be so easily remedied. (One of the final episodes of the television show “Succession” features a not-implausible fire that destroys 100,000 uncounted mail-in ballots in Milwaukee, with grave, albeit fictional, electoral consequences.) And even if there aren’t large-scale attacks on our election processes, even the fear of violence or interference could deter people from voting. In 2022, for example, vigilantes patrolled a ballot drop box area in Arizona before a federal court enjoined the intimidating conduct. We don’t know what individuals or groups have planned for this time, but government officials are warning of possible extremist violence.
The potential for violent escalation makes it crucial for law enforcement to make the investigation and prosecution of Monday’s ballot attacks a priority. The FBI says it is coordinating with local authorities, which is the right move. We need law enforcement to act vigorously to identify the perpetrators of these crimes and bring them to justice.
There are a number of federal statutes that could be used to charge arsonists who burn ballots, including one that bars the destruction or mutilation of ballots and another that bars using force to interfere with voting. State laws also classify ballot burning and similar activities as crimes. Washington state, for example, prohibits tampering with voting materials and devices used in voting. Oregon law provides that a person “may not willfully alter or destroy a ballot cast at an election or the returns of an election.”
In addition to prosecuting the crimes that have already occurred, it is crucial to ensure that voters feel welcome and safe to vote in coming days.
In the end, the idea of free and fair elections means that eligible voters should be able to easily cast ballots that will be fairly and accurately counted, in a system free of violence and intimidation. It’s a sad testament to American democracy that this needs to be said, but it does. Now is the time for all of us to remain vigilant to assure free elections and a peaceful transition of power in the weeks and months ahead.
Richard L. Hasen is professor at UCLA School of Law, where he directs its Safeguarding Democracy Project. He is an NBC News/BLN election law analyst.
President Donald Trump on Sunday endorsed former Sen. John E. Sununu in New Hampshire’s open Senate race, boosting a longtime critic over one of his former ambassadors, Scott Brown.
Trump hailed Sununu, who Republicans see as their best chance to flip the blue Senate seat, as an “America First Patriot” in a Truth Social post Sunday afternoon. And Trump said Sununu will “work tirelessly to advance our America First Agenda.”
“John E. Sununu has my Complete and Total Endorsement — HE WILL NOT LET YOU DOWN. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN — ELECT JOHN E. SUNUNU,” he posted.
Sununu, a moderate who has opposed Trump across his presidential runs, thanked him in a statement and quickly pivoted to talking about his priorities for New Hampshire.
“I want to thank the President for his support and thank the thousands of Granite Staters who are supporting me,” Sununu said. “This campaign has and always will be about standing up for New Hampshire — every single day.”
Trump’s endorsement further tips the scales in an already pitched GOP primary between Sununu and Brown, who represented Massachusetts in the Senate before moving to New Hampshire and running unsuccessfully for Senate there in 2014. He served as Trump’s ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa in his first term, and has been presenting himself as the more Trump-aligned candidate as he courts the MAGA base.
Brown vowed to fight on. And he took a veiled shot at Sununu, accusing him of not being sufficiently dedicated to the MAGA movement.
“I am running to ensure our America First agenda is led by someone who views this mission not as a career path, but as a continuation of a lifelong commitment to service,” Brown said in a post on X. “Let’s keep working.”
The two are competing to take on Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas for the seat being vacated by retiring Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen. Pappas issued a simple response to Trump’s endorsement of Sununu: “I’m Chris Pappas, and I approve this message,” he wrote on X. His campaign manager, Rachel Pretti, said in a statement that Trump’s endorsement “confirms” that Sununu “will sell out Granite Staters to advance his political career.”
Trump’s support for Sununu once would have seemed unfathomable. The scion of a moderate New Hampshire Republican dynasty, Sununu served as a national co-chair of former Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s 2016 presidential campaign and joined his family in backing former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley for president against Trump in the 2024 GOP primary.
Ahead of New Hampshire’s 2024 presidential primary, Sununu penned an op-ed lambasting Trump as a “loser.” (Trump went on to win by 11 points). And he later derided Trump’s 2020 election conspiracies as “completely inappropriate.”
Republicans initially were bullish about flipping an open seat in purple New Hampshire that’s already changed hands between parties twice this century — Sununu defeated Shaheen to win the seat in 2002, then lost it to her in 2008 — and coalesced quickly behind the moderate Republican as their best option against Pappas. Sununu received instant backing from the GOP’s Senate campaign arm upon his launch last October and has wracked up endorsements from the majority of Republican senators. He’s also won support from Republican leaders in New Hampshire — all of which Trump noted in his Truth Social post Sunday.
Trump also initially supported Sununu’s younger brother, former Gov. Chris Sununu, running for the Senate seat. Chris Sununu, also a vocal Trump critic, declined to launch a bid, prompting GOP interest in his brother.
But some in Trump’s Granite State MAGA base quickly rejected his endorsement of Sununu, calling it a “slap in the face to grassroots supporters” long loyal to the president.
“The Sununu family openly mocked, degraded, and worked against the America First movement, the President himself, and the policies that energized New Hampshire voters,” a group of MAGA activists wrote on X. “We will continue and intensify our campaign opposition to the Sununu operation.”
Sununu holds a wide lead over Brown in polling of the GOP primary. The latest, a University of New Hampshire online survey of likely primary voters from mid-January, showed Sununu up 48 percent to 25 percent with 26 percent of likely voters undecided. But Pappas is ahead of both Republicans in hypothetical general-election matchups, leading Sununu by 5 percentage points and Brown by 10 percentage points in the UNH poll. The survey of 967 likely GOP primary voters had a margin of error of +/-3.2 percent.
Pappas also outraised both Republicans, bringing in $2.3 million last quarter and amassing a $3.2 million war chest heading into the year. Sununu hauled in $1.3 million and had $1.1 million in cash on hand in his primary campaign account while Brown raised $347,000 through his main account and had $907,000 in the bank.
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