Investigators in Oregon searching for the person responsible for three fires at ballot drop boxes in the past few weeks – which damaged hundreds of ballots – believe “it is very possible the suspect intends to continue the attacks,” a police spokesperson said Wednesday.
Portland Police Bureau spokesperson Mike Benner described the suspect as a White man between 30 and 40 years old, who is balding or has very short hair. The man has a medium to thin build, he said.
Fires were set at three ballot boxes in the area in the past three weeks. Officials have identified 488 damaged ballots that were retrieved from a burned ballot box in Vancouver, Washington, and 345 of those voters already requested new ballots, according to election officials. Elections staff will mail another 143 replacement ballots to voters Thursday, officials said on X.
Re: the headline
No they didn’t.
“In terms of anticipating future behavior, that’s a speculation,” the chief said. “That’s just what we have to anticipate. It would be really naive of us or unjust for us to say that ‘hey, it’s all taken care of,’ and we don’t have him in custody.”
They are planning for future attacks because it would absolutely stupid and a failure of their duties to not, but nowhere in that article are they quoted as saying they think he will.
That might not seem like an actual distinction, but to claim they think he will act again implies they have some material insight and can discourage voters even further from attempting to use drop boxes; conversely, to claim they are anticipating future attacks does not imply any material insight and if anticipation is followed with increased security can help to assuage voters’ fears.
