FBI offers reward in search for suspect in Washington and Oregon ballot box fires

SEATTLE — The FBI is offering a reward of up to $25,000 for information leading to the arrest of a suspect in a trio of suspected arsons at Pacific Northwest ballot boxes last month.

Particularly, the bureau is seeking any information from the public that might help them locate a vehicle captured on surveillance cameras at the scene of one of the fires, said Seattle acting FBI Special Agent in Charge Gregory Austin. The FBI released a new poster detailing the incidents and seeking the public’s help.

“The FBI’s mission is to protect the American people and protect the Constitution,” Austin said during a news conference Wednesday. “These ballot-box arsons are an attack on both.”

He said the ballot box fires were a top priority for the Seattle and Portland FBI field offices.

The vehicle the FBI is seeking is an early 2003 to 2004 Volvo S60 sedan, dark in color, with dark wheels and a light-colored interior, according to the poster. The car does not have a Volvo logo on the front grill, the bureau said.

Officials have said they are looking for a white man, age 30 to 40, with very short hair who was driving.

Austin said the FBI has determined a license plate on the rear of the car was “fraudulent” and may no longer be attached. The vehicle did not have a front license plate.

Austin also elaborated on reports that the construction of the devices indicated the suspect may have welding or metalworking experience. While there is evidence to indicate some expertise or experience in that area, he said, it is not something agents are focusing on.

Nor is the ideology that may have been driving the arsons. Austin acknowledged “public reports” by The New York Times, the Associated Press and others that the arsonist left messages — “Free Gaza” and “Free Palestine” — at the scenes. He said agents believe locating the car is more likely to lead to an arrest.

“No detail is too small,” he said. “No tip too minor.”

The sophistication of the devices led officials to speculate that their creator has experience as a welder or metalworker.

One device placed at a ballot box around 3:30 a.m. on Oct. 28 outside the Multnomah County Elections Division office in Portland damaged just a handful of ballots. Then a device attached to a ballot drop box in Vancouver about an hour later, near the Fisher’s Landing Transit Center, damaged or destroyed hundreds of ballots, according to Clark County law enforcement officials.

The sites were about five miles apart. Law enforcement officials believe a similar fire that took place on Oct. 8 at a downtown Vancouver ballot box is connected, though there were no ballots in it at the time.

The Vancouver ballot box was located in Washington’s 3rd Congressional District, where incumbent Democratic Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez defeated Republican Joe Kent in an extremely close race.