Millions of Americans have already voted in the 2024 presidential election, at polling places or by dropping them off by mail or at ballot drop boxes — a long-popular way to return completed ballots. When some ballots were damaged Monday in fires intentionally set at ballot boxes in Oregon and Washington state, it raised questions about the security of the boxes and how votes would be counted.

But election officials told PolitiFact that the overwhelming majority of drop boxes are secure and it’s rare for ballots to be lost or destroyed. Election officials are accustomed and trained to handle damaged ballots.

“I think we had some bad actors here,” the chairman of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission said. Benjamin Hovland. “Overall, it’s a secure way to vote.”

In Portland, Oregon, a fire extinguishing system the inside of the box protected hundreds of ballots, and three were damaged. Voter names were still visible and the county clerk will follow up with those voters, said Laura Kerns, communications director for the Oregon Secretary of State. Oregon voters can also track their ballots online.

“Voters should be assured that even if their ballots were in the affected box, their votes will be counted,” Elections Director Tim Scott of Multnomah County, Oregon, said Monday. press release.

In Vancouver, Washington, ballot boxes were equipped with fire suppression systems, but they appear to have malfunctioned. Election officials identified 488 damaged ballots, according to a press release from Clark County Auditor Greg Kimsey. Vancouver is located in Clark County.

Of the 488 voters whose ballots were damaged, 345 had contacted the Clark County elections office to request a replacement ballot Tuesday, and poll workers were mailing replacement ballots to the remaining 143 voters Thursday. Six ballots could not be identified and others may have burned beyond recognition, Kimsey said.

Millions of ballots were returned by mail or mailbox without incident.

“We had about 50 million early votes, already voted on, very few problems,” said David Becker, executive director and founder of the Center for Election Innovation and Research. CBS News Tuesday. “These are very, very isolated attacks.”

How election officials deal with damaged ballots

There are scenarios in which a ballot could be lost or destroyed, but that is rare, said Hovland, of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.

“Election officials will do everything they can to make this voter whole,” he said. It is important that voters’ details are registered with their local electoral council so that they can be contacted if necessary.

Although ballot box burning is a new thing, election officials are used to dealing with damaged ballots.

“It’s not unusual for a voter to call you and say, ‘My dog ​​ate my ballot, I spilled coffee on it,’ and you would give them a new ballot,” said Jennifer Morrella former state elections official in Utah and Colorado, now chief executive of The Elections Group, an election consulting firm.

Practices vary by state, but election officials generally count the first ballot received, so that even in cases where a voter fills out a replacement ballot after a first ballot has already been counted, the replacement will not be counted. If a voter submits two ballots, election officials will report the incident to authorities responsible for investigating election violations, Morrell said.

When ballots are so damaged that they cannot be read by machines, but they are still intact and the markings are still readable, trained bipartisan teams transfer voter selections to new ballots so machines can read them, Morrell said.

Ballots damaged by fire and still containing enough information to identify a voter can be replaced by contacting the voter. If the ballot turns to ashes in a fire, it’s more difficult, Morrell said. A voter can track a ballot online to ensure it has arrived and call the local election office to check the status of a ballot if in doubt.

If you cannot determine whether your ballot was received and are unable to obtain a replacement ballot, Morrell recommends that you go to your polling place on Election Day and vote with a ballot provisional. If your original ballot is ultimately found, your provisional ballot will not be counted.

In Oregon, for example, all voting is done by mail and a replacement ballot can be issued to any voter who needs one. Unique barcodes on each envelope ensure that only one ballot is counted per registered voter, Kerns said.

The ballot boxes are secure, overall

Authorities believe the ballot box fires in Oregon and Washington are linked, as well as an Oct. 8 incident in which another ballot box in Vancouver was targeted with an incendiary device.

There have been isolated examples of ballots being destroyed elsewhere during this election cycle. A mailbox was set on fire On October 24 in Phoenix, around twenty ballots were destroyed. Maricopa County Election Officials contacted voters they knew were affectedand others who had used that mailbox to mail their ballots were asked to contact the elections office to obtain a replacement ballot. And in 2020, arson attacks at two drop boxes, one in California and the other in Massachusettsdestroyed approximately 135 ballots in total.

Election experts are reassuring voters that using ballot drop boxes is safe.

Suzanne Almeidadirector of state operations for Common Cause, a public advocacy group, told reporters during a webinar Tuesday that “we haven’t seen a trend with the fires.”

“Mail voting remains incredibly secure,” Almeida said.

Almeida encouraged voters to track their absentee ballots online. Many election offices allow voters to sign up to receive text messages or emails when their completed ballots have been received.

Each state holds its own elections, but many drop boxes have fire suppression systems and many boxes are monitored by surveillance cameras; some states have laws that require monitoring by personnel or a video camera. Others are located inside buildings, inaccessible to the public at night. In Clark County, election officials said they would collect ballots boxes before 5:30 p.m. each day, so that they are not full at night, and increase patrols around the boxes. Election officials also monitor the ballot boxes 24 hours a day.

THE Associated Press interviewed election officials after the 2020 election and found that there were no widespread problems with the ballot boxes, nor could any have affected the results.

Drop boxes are generally more secure than stand-alone mailboxes. They typically weigh hundreds of pounds, can be bolted into the ground and have small slots through which voters can drop their ballots. Documented cases of security issues are rare.

PolitiFact senior correspondent Amy Sherman contributed reporting.

• • •

Tampa Bay Times election coverage

Voter’s Guide to the 2024 General Election: More than 90 local candidates on the issues: Here’s who’s running for office and their positions on abortion, immigration, local schools and more.

Why Florida Democrats should be optimistic — and why they should be pessimistic: For the first time in a long time, Democrats seem to have some juice. Is it real?

Here are the 6 amendments Floridians will vote on in November: The proposals concern abortion, marijuana, hunting and fishing and much more.

Florida Amendment 1 explains: Partisan school elections will be on the ballot this election.

How Florida Amendment 2 Could Affect Hunting and Fishing: The constitutional right to fish and hunt will be on the ballot.

Amendment 3: Florida’s recreational marijuana ballot measure, explained.

5 Tampa Bay congressional races are scheduled. Here’s who’s running.

If Florida votes for abortion and marijuana, will lawmakers comply? Florida Republican leaders oppose both amendments.