Portland police say ballot box arsonist has ‘wealth of experience’ with welding, metal fabrication

New details are emerging about incendiary devices placed in ballot boxes early Monday in Portland and Vancouver, Washington.

At a news conference Wednesday, Portland police released their first description of a suspect. Agency spokesperson Mike Benner said the person is believed to be white male, between 30 and 40 years old, with short hair or balding, a thin-to-medium build, a thin face and wearing a dark shirt.

“We believe this suspect has a wealth of experience in metal fabrication and welding,” Benner said. “It’s very possible the suspect continues targeted attacks across the area.”

Benner said law enforcement believes the same person is connected to both incidents Monday, as well as a third incident that took place on Oct. 8 in Vancouver where the incendiary device did not go off.

Police are searching for a black or dark-colored 2001-2004 Volvo S-60 seen at the site of the Portland fire. The car did not have a front license plate, making it difficult to identify.

The incidents — just days before the 2024 election — have raised concerns about security. Law enforcement, along with businesses and local officials, are preparing for the possibility of unrest, but also urging calm regardless of the outcome.

In September, officials in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security sent an intelligence brief to states warning that during the past six months posts on social media were promoting the destruction of ballot boxes during the 2024 election cycle.

“Election infrastructure remains an attractive target for some domestic violent extremists and other threat actors with election-related grievances who seek to disrupt the democratic process and election operations,” the brief states.

Methods included using road flares, white phosphorus and farm machinery to damage ballot boxes, which the bulletin described as “soft targets” because they’re widely accessible.

“Some social media users recommended masquerading as an ideological opponent and wearing clothes and masks associated with ‘antifa,’” the intelligence bulletin states. It also noted that similar threats occurred during elections in 2020 and 2022, and that “states with more ballot drop boxes may be more at risk.”

Related: Ballot boxes still safe for voting despite arson attacks in Portland and Vancouver, election officials say

Oregon and Washington are primarily vote-by-mail states where voters return their ballots through the mail or drop-off locations.

Elections officials in Vancouver have stepped up security of ballot boxes, stressing they’re safe and that ballots dropped off will be picked up earlier in the day.

The damaged ballot boxes in both states were equipped with fire suppression systems that respond to spikes in temperature.

In Portland, those canisters worked. Only three ballots were damaged out of hundreds.

In Vancouver, that system didn’t appear to function, and 488 ballots were damaged. Clark County elections officials said in a release Wednesday that 345 voters have already contacted the elections office to request a replacement ballot. Six ballots were unidentifiable, officials said, and others “may have been completely burned to ash, and therefore, unidentifiable.”

The FBI said in a statement this week it was working with local, state and other federal law enforcement agencies “to actively investigate” the incidents and “determine who is responsible.”

“It’s an extremist act,” said Renn Cannon, former special agent in charge of the FBI in Oregon. “There’s a host of different extremist groups, extremist ideologies under which I can see this fitting where somebody who has bought into that ideology could see this as a logical action.”

During Wednesday’s news conference in Portland, police declined to provide any details about a possible motive for the attacks.

Cannon said investigators will be looking at everything from social media posts, to tips and security footage. The devices themselves are also a key piece of evidence.

“Devices that get built by people sometimes have signatures, and so there’s a database of electronic devices that could be analyzed,” Cannon said, “to see if that matches particular techniques that are known to tie back to a specific person or group.”

‘I’m not laying awake at night worried about next week’

In spite of the manhunt, officials from around the region tried to strike a confident tone heading into Election Day as they gave an overview of their plans to allow peaceful protests while minimizing violence.

In the aftermath of the 2020 protests, Portland Police Chief Bob Day said at the press conference that the city’s response to the results will have the nation’s attention.

“Everybody’s looking at Portland — still to this day, four years later — everybody wants to know how we’re going to show up,” Day said.

He and Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler were flanked by more than a dozen local agency heads, including Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt and Doug Olson, the Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Portland office.

City officials said they plan to set up an emergency command-style approach for next week. Police officers have canceled days-off for the week, Day said, putting more rank-and-file officers out into the public.

Portland Police Bureau spokesperson Benner later said that the police agencies of Gresham, Lake Oswego and the Port of Portland will be ready to pick up 911 calls elsewhere within the city if Portland police are preoccupied.

Still, questions linger about the preparedness. At a recent meeting of local law enforcement officials, Multnomah County Sheriff Nicole Morrisey O’Donnell warned that the county’s jails are nearly at full capacity.

Morrisey O’Donnell said Wednesday that the jail is looking at sending currently incarcerated people to other jurisdictions if necessary. She also said that she and others will “evaluate holds on where people are within their stay.”

Agency heads — as well as Andrew Hoan, president and CEO of the Portland Business Alliance and Portland Metro Chamber — took turns at the podium to emphasize the concerted approach. Wheeler said that they have been preparing for months for “multiple specific scenarios.”

When asked if Portland officials have been communicating their plans to federal agents, after they made headlines in 2020 for pulling protesters off the streets and into unmarked vans, Day said there was no communication out of the ordinary.

“We’re working with our federal partners regularly, but not from a request to have additional law enforcement officers on the ground,” Day said. “We are not asking for, we are not seeking a repeat of that behavior from 2020.”

Day later noted that, as much as he felt like the city is approaching “a moment” to show a unified Portland, he’s not worried.

“Folks, I’m not laying awake at night worried about next week,” Day said. “I think next week is our time.”