Los Angeles Ballot Drop Box Torched 48 Hours Before PrimaryOfficials Wont Say How Many Votes Were Lost

According to RedState, county workers on Sunday morning discovered a number of damaged vote-by-mail ballots inside the official drop box at the Department of Public Social ServicesCivic Center in downtown Los Angeles, where a fire had ignited sometime after the final Saturday night collection and before the first pickup. During that entire window, no county employee was present and no one was monitoring the box, a glaring vulnerability in a state that routinely touts its secure voting infrastructure.

Officials have declined to specify how many ballots were burned or whether any were rendered unreadable, leaving voters to guess at the scope of the damage. They insist that affected voters will be contacted and offered replacement ballots, but with less than two days before the primary, whether those voters will realistically receive notice and respond in time is far from certain.

Separately, election workers arriving at the vote center at Cesar E. Chavez Park in Long Beach found the facility had been vandalized, though the county has refused to describe the nature or extent of the damage. Authorities claim that voting operations continued without disruption, a familiar assurance that does little to address public concern about what, exactly, was compromised.

Both incidents have been referred to the Los Angeles Police Department, but no arrests have been made and no suspects have been publicly identified. Registrar-Recorder Dean Logan attempted to reassure the public in a written statement, declaring, "Our responsibility is to protect voters and ensure every eligible voter has the opportunity to cast a ballot. Any attempt to interfere with voting or election operations is taken seriously. We will continue working closely with law enforcement and other partners to safeguard the voting process and ensure voters can participate with confidence."

Los Angeles County Board Chair Hilda Solis echoed that message, stating, "Voting is a fundamental right, and Los Angeles County remains committed to ensuring every eligible voter can cast a ballot safely and confidently. Any attempt to vandalize election facilities, damage voting materials, or interfere with the voting process is unacceptable. We take these incidents seriously and will continue working with election officials and law enforcement partners to protect voters and uphold the integrity of our elections."

These events unfolded less than a week after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed SB 73, a measure he claimed would shield California elections from "interference and intimidation" ahead of the June 2 primary. The law tightens law enforcement access to election materials without specific authorization and increases penalties for unlawful interference with ballots and election administration, yet it does nothing to ensure that critical infrastructure like urban drop boxes are actually supervised.

None of that addresses an unmonitored drop box in downtown Los Angeles getting set on fire the night before an election, a failure that undercuts Sacramentos rhetoric about protecting democracy while President Trumps second administration continues to press for stronger election safeguards nationwide. This is also not an isolated episode: in October 2024, ballot drop boxes in Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver, Washington, were torched using thermite, a military-grade incendiary compound, destroying hundreds of ballots just days before the presidential election, and the FBI later confirmed thermite was used and is still offering a reward for information leading to the suspect, though any link between those attacks and Sundays Los Angeles fire remains unproven.

With no suspects identified in either the Los Angeles fire or the Long Beach vandalism, Californians are again left to trust a system that repeatedly fails at the most basic task of physically protecting ballots. The primary is on Tuesday, and for voters who believe election integrity is non-negotiable, these incidents will only reinforce the argument for tighter controls, real-time monitoring, and a move away from unsecured drop boxes toward more accountable, in-person voting.