The ballot drop boxes in Washington and Oregon both have fire suppression systems that are designed to activate when the temperature inside reaches a certain point, coating ballots inside with a fire-suppressing powder.
For unknown reasons, the system failed to prevent the destruction of hundreds of ballots in Vancouver, just across the Columbia River from Portland.
What are these things doing outside? I don’t get that. Put them inside the courthouse, post office, fire station, a million other places they’d be safe from arson.
I used a 24hr box for my ballot because I have a job at “normal” hours.
The problem lies in that people need to access them outside working hours due to their own work schedules, which is ultimately the point of these things. Granted, a fire station,
police station, or even a hospital lobby would be better than outside.Edit: ok, maybe not a police station, but y’all get my point
Why not just use post boxes? Less of a concentrated target because there’ll be a whole bunch of other letters in there too. At least, I don’t believe my country uses special boxes just for votes
You can drop it in the post but many people are paranoid about it being lost in the mail. The US also suffered a not unnoticeable degradation in the post service under Trump and his post master general pick who is still at his post because he didn’t resign and Biden didn’t fire him.
I still vote in person because of my own anxieties about my vote being counted.
Police station would be a terrible choice. People who aren’t able to vote on election day skew poor, black, brown, and/or immigrant - exactly the groups who would be (rightly) afraid of entering a police station.
Removed by mod
Are you just…completely unaware of the racist nature of police in America? What a nice privilege.
Hey, mod here. What they are saying is correct. Police intimidation/fear is justified for a large percent of the population, even those that are law-abiding. That’s why the phrase “walking while black” exists.
I urge you to not make these kind of comments, as they detract from the overall conversation. I also urge you to edit or remove this comment, as it violates rule 1.
This response is so wild to me. Nobody even needs to talk to a cop. Having an additional drop off location at a police station is more convenient than not having it. Walk into building, put envelope in box, walk out. Makes sense for any government funded building that’s already required to be staffed 24/7 and monitored by CCTV, the police department included.
Little bit concerned about a police station, both because people might feel intimidated, and votes could get ‘lost’.