Rantz: Vancouver ballot box arson shows vulnerability, but also disinterest from Sec. Hobbs

A ballot drop box in Vancouver was targeted with arson, an act that should result in serious conversations about reasonable security measures to protect our votes. Too bad Secretary of State Steve Hobbs doesn’t seem all that interested in addressing the issue.

Hundreds of ballots were destroyed at the Vancouver ballot box outside the C-TRAN Park & Ride at Fisher’s Landing Transit Center. Someone reportedly stuck some kind of device to the ballot box, causing it to catch fire early Monday morning. In a separate incident, an incendiary device was placed inside a Portland, Oregon ballot box. An internal fire suppressant was activated and saved all but three ballots.

Many ballot drop boxes are out in the open and not subject to simple measures to ensure ballots are as safe as possible. Rather than address good faith concerns, Hobbs tried to imply that this had something to do with threats against election workers, which was supposed to invoke criticism against Donald Trump.

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Why is Steve Hobbs making the Vancouver ballot box arson about Trump?

Hobbs’ response to the Vancouver ballot drop box arson was odd. It’s as if he was briefed on an incident that didn’t take place.

“We take the safety of our election workers seriously and will not tolerate threats or acts of violence that seek to undermine the democratic process,” Hobbs said in a release.

But this incident wasn’t an attack against election workers. And no worker was threatened or faced threats as a result of this incident. This was an attack against democracy where the voters impacted were the true victims. The press release doesn’t even explain why we should feel safe dropping a ballot in a drop box. So why would Hobbs randomly make this about election workers’ security? It wasn’t likely random at all.

Washington Democrats passed a slew of bills to protect election workers last year. In setting up the need, they blamed Trump for for the increase in ire towards election workers, something that Hobbs is happy to reintroduce via this dropbox arson. Reframing this around election workers is a way to demonize Trump, which he thinks will help both Democrats statewide and his own re-election campaign.

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How should the secretary of state react to the arson?

The Secretary of State should have responded to the Vancouver ballot drop box arson by first acknowledging these kinds of incidents are exceptionally rare, and then admitting that the ballot drop boxes can be vulnerable. But when you bring up anything related to election security and integrity, Democrats immediately accuse you of being an election denier. It’s how partisans react, and it only makes our elections less secure.

Dale Whitaker, a Republican candidate for Secretary of State, offers a simple solution: Treat the ballot boxes like they’re banks.

“The reality is there are ways, cost-effective ways, that we can absolutely secure our ballot boxes, and they’re not being done,” Whitaker told “The Jason Rantz Show” on KTTH. “And it begs the question: Why is it not being done? If we cannot talk about improving our election system in fear of being called an election denier, then that removes any impetus for us to actually improve our elections.”

Whitaker said it can be as simple as strategically placing our drop boxes closer to or inside government buildings — like libraries, police stations and post offices — and utilizing surveillance.

“They need to be locked, secured and under surveillance 24/7. With the technology we have today, cameras are cheap, data is cheap,” Whitaker said. “There are ways that we can secure our ballot boxes with surveillance so that when these things happen, we at least have a way to pursue those who are doing these things. This is a very common sense way to secure our ballot boxes.”

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