Man charged in burning of ballot drop box in Boston

Police say a 39-year-old man has been charged with lighting a fire in a Boston ballot drop box and damaging dozens of ballots

Election 2020-Massachusetts-Ballot Box

A man was charged with lighting a fire in a Boston ballot drop box and damaging dozens of ballots, police said Monday.

Worldy Armand, a 39-year-old Boston resident, was taken into custody late Sunday after drug control unit officers on patrol saw a man who matched the description of the suspect authorities were looking for in the ballot box fire, police said. Police said he also had an active warrant for receiving stolen property.

Armand faces a charge of willful and malicious burning, police said. It was not immediately clear whether he has an attorney to comment on his behalf.

The FBI said Sunday that it's investigating the fire that was set around 4 a.m. in a ballot drop box outside the Boston Public Library downtown.

Officers called to the scene saw smoke coming out of the box before firefighters managed to extinguish the fire by filling the box with water, police said.

There were 122 ballots inside the box when it was emptied Sunday morning, and 87 of them were still legible and able to be processed, Galvin’s office said.

Voters can go online to see whether their ballot was processed. Those who used that dropbox between Saturday afternoon and 4 a.m. Sunday and can’t confirm the status of their ballot online should contact the Boston Elections Department immediately, officials said.

Voters whose ballots were affected can either vote in person or by a replacement ballot that will be mailed to them, officials said. If those voters don’t submit a new ballot, “their original ballot will be hand-counted to the extent possible,” election officials said.

The FBI said in a statement announcing their investigation that “it is a top priority of our offices to help maintain the integrity of the election process in Massachusetts by aggressively enforcing federal election laws.”