Boston Police on Monday announced they had made an arrest after a ballot drop box outside the Boston Public Library in Copley Square was set alight in the early hours of Sunday morning, damaging dozens of ballots.
The incident, a week after another ballot drop box in Los Angeles County, California was set on fire, fueled fears that the drop boxes may have targeted to undermine democracy.
But on Monday, Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins said the suspect in the Boston arson attack, 39-year-old Worldy Armand, appears to be “emotionally disturbed” and she does not believe Armand is “plotting against our democracy.” He is charged with willful and malicious burning, police said.
The FBI said on Sunday that it was investigating the incident, adding that it is “a top priority of our offices to help maintain the integrity of the election process in Massachusetts.”
In an interview with Newsweek, Hovland said that while the arson attacks were “unfortunate,” they were limited cases and shouldn’t disenfranchise any voters.
“Obviously, these are serious felonies and law enforcement is investigating that,” he said. “These are certainly a few very unfortunate incidents, but they are limited.”
Hovland said: “I think these are largely isolated acts of bad actors… again serious crimes that will be investigated, and hopefully, people will be held accountable.”
He added that ballot drop boxes have been used in much of the U.S. for years without problems and that should continue in 2020, with contingency measures put in place for any ballots that are damaged.
“We have seen two of these instances and… certainly with one, it seems like a decent number of the people who are impacted, were able to be identified and have replacement ballots,” Hovland said.
“I think that depends on on the shape the ballots are in. The other option is things like provisional ballots, where people who may have used that drop box in that window of time would have an option to cast a ballot, and if, in fact, their ballot had been impacted, then they would have one that could be counted.”
He noted that because of how decentralized elections in the U.S. are, those measures would vary across the country. But he is confident that such incidents won’t dissuade people from voting in this year’s election.
“You’re talking about isolated incidents here… you’re talking about criminal bad actors, who are certainly, whether or not this is their intention, obviously, part of this is to make people feel less comfortable voting,” he said.
“And I think what we’re seeing is the opposite with the enthusiasm that’s out there. People are engaging, people are participating.”
Citing the U.S. Elections Project, which reports that more than 66 million ballots have already been cast with a week to go until Election Day, Hovland said it shows “unprecedented levels of engagement.”
“We’re seeing record amounts of mail and absentee ballots, record amounts of early voting. And all of those are…great as far as helping to spread out the vote, helping limit congestion.”
