Authorities have charged a man for allegedly lighting a ballot box on fire and damaging dozens of ballots in Boston over the weekend, police said Monday. The Boston Election Department said 87 of the 122 ballots inside the dropbox were legible and able to be processed, but the rest were destroyed or unable to be counted.
Worldly Armand, 39, was taken into custody late Sunday after officers matched his appearance with the description of a person wanted for the alleged arson, police said. After a query by the officers, they found Armand was wanted on a warrant out of a local court for receiving stolen property. He will be arraigned in Boston Municipal Court on a charge of willful and malicious burning.
Police said smoke was coming out of a ballot box near Copley Square early Sunday morning and firefighters extinguished the fire by filling it with water. The Boston Police Department released photos to help find the culprit. . .
City officials last collected ballots at the dropbox Saturday around 2:29 p.m., according to the Boston Election Department. The department said the city would mail a new ballot to all voters whose ballots were identified in the Copley Square dropbox at the time. If those voters don’t recast the ballots, the city will hand count the ones recovered.
via joemiller