Elections Officials Report Stolen Portland Mailbox May Have Contained Some Ballots

Mail theft has reached a new threshhold of brazenness, unfortunately coinciding with the vote-by-mail window.

Mailbox_Trevor Gagnier (Trevor Gagnier)
By Nigel Jaquiss

The U.S. Postal Service informed Multnomah County elections officials today that somebody stole a mailbox sometime after postal officials last emptied the box at 11:35 am on Wednesday, May 4.

The concern: Voters may have placed ballots in the blue metal collection box located at Southeast Reed College Place and Woodstock Boulevard after the last pickup and before the theft, which occurred sometime later that day.

Voters who fear their ballots might have gotten swiped can check at multco.us/trackyourballot. In the event that you voted and put your ballot in the missing box but it doesn’t show up in the tracking tool, you can replace your ballot at multco.us/orderahead or by calling the elections office at 503-988-8683. (County officials say that one voter who used the purloined mailbox already discovered the problem and replaced the missing ballot.)

Otherwise, ballots must be either postmarked no later than May 17 or deposited at an official ballot drop-off by 8 pm May 17 to be counted. Here’s a guide to those drop spots.

As WW reported last week, ballot returns are sluggish this May—making every vote count even more than usual.

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