Voters have raised concerns about their ballots being lost in fires. Here are the facts

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In 2024, hundreds of midterm election ballots burned overnight in ballot boxes overnight in Oregon and Washington. According to the FBI, someone placed improvised incendiary devices two ballot drop boxes in Vancouver, Washington, between 3:30 and 4 a.m. Oct. 8 and one drop box in Portland, Oregon, between 2 and 4 a.m. Oct. 28. 

The incidents appeared to materialize fears about a form of election tampering that had played on the public consciousness prior to 2024 and even inspired an episode of the TV drama “Succession” in 2023.

During summer 2026, a county clerk’s office in Los Angeles also reported that a small number of mail-in ballots had been fire-damaged inside a ballot drop box days before the state’s June primary elections. 

Though actual, verified instances of ballot burning are rare, voter fears about legitimate votes going uncounted this way will undoubtedly resurface during the 2026 midterm elections. Incidents like the ones in Oregon, Washington and California raise legitimate questions about what happens when criminals attempt to tamper with democratic elections and how both voters and officials can ensure that every vote is counted.

Real instances of ballot burnings can also stoke existing fears of election tampering and encourage the spread of misinformation. For example, in 2020 and 2021, Snopes debunked rumors about ballot-burning in Virginia and Arizona. These incidents were not ballot box fires and turned out to be either refuted or unproven, but spoke to real voter concerns. In our research, Snopes has not encountered a reported and verified incident of ballot burning that was not a ballot box fire, suggesting that ballot drop box fires are the most likely way a ballot can burn.

Drop boxes most-common source of ballot fires

The legitimate incidents of ballot burning that Snopes encountered from previous election cycles all happened in ballot drop boxes. A ballot drop box is a container where voters can drop mail-in or absentee ballots after filling them out. 

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 29 states and Washington, D.C., explicitly allow the use of ballot drop boxes in elections and 11 states explicitly prohibit them. Six states do not have statues explicitly about drop boxes, but some jurisdictions use them. Four states do not have legislation governing ballot drop boxes and do not use them.

While the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency provides guidelines for the use of ballot drop boxes, individual states determine how, when and where to use them. The NCSL wrote that “drop boxes may be supervised or unsupervised with security features, such as cameras, locks and fire suppression systems.”

CISA issued special guidelines about ballot drop boxes and incendiary devices after the incidents in Oregon and Washington in 2024. The agency suggested that states consider emptying the boxes more often and installing video surveillance and fire suppression systems.

How officials mitigate drop box fires

Out of the three ballot drop boxes burned in Washington and Oregon in 2024, the one in Portland reportedly already had a fire suppression system installed, meaning only three ballots were damaged. 

Elections officials reportedly contacted the voters whose ballots burned to issue replacements.

However, the fires in Vancouver, Washington, destroyed “hundreds” of ballots. At the time, Clark County Auditor Greg Kimsey issued a statement to voters asking them to check whether their ballot had been received if they deposited it at a certain drop box in a certain time frame. 

At the time of the fire in the early hours of Oct. 28, it had been more than a day since elections authorities had last emptied one drop box that burned. Because ballots dropped in drop boxes have usually not been processed by elections officials, there is no sure way to know to whom damaged ballots belong (unless identifying details are still legible).

Kimsey told Snopes via email in October 2026 that approximately 500 ballots burned in the 2024 fires in Washington. Of those, Kimsey said, all but 19 voters got replacement ballots and submitted their votes

Kimsey said the elections board duplicated the 19 missing ballots but “due to the damage we were unable to determine the voters’ choices for all offices and issues on the ballots.”

Ultimately, though the ballot drop box fires in Clark County in 2024 were destructive, officials were able to ensure that the vast majority of the affected votes were counted.

In October 2026, CNN reported that Clark County had upgraded its ballot drop boxes following the 2024 attacks. The new boxes, CNN reported, “include technology that sends a text message to officials if the temperature inside the box rises above a certain temperature, if the box receives a forceful blow or if it’s removed from its geo-fenced location.” Kimsey confirmed this information to Snopes.

Aside from better fire suppression technology, CNN reported that elections officials in Pennsylvania, Illinois and California had invested in ballot drop boxes that photographed people dropping off ballots and scanned the ballot return envelope, meaning officials would know which ballots were in a given box at a given time.

Along with fire suppressant technology, the data the updated ballot drop boxes collected would make it possible for officials to contact affected voters directly in the event of a ballot box fire.

In sum, while ballot drop box fires do pose a threat to voters, elections officials have multiple ways to prevent or mitigate their effects. Our analysis suggests that readers should treat reports of ballot burning that is not a ballot drop box fire with suspicion. We will attempt to investigate such rumors as they surface during the 2026 election cycle.

For further reading about common election-related claims, Snopes has previously reported on whether poll workers can mark your ballot or how vote spikes affect elections.

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