Police say vandalism discovered at a voting center in downtown Long Beach on Sunday morning does not appear to be connected to the election.
Long Beach Police Department spokesperson Allison Gallagher said the vandalism amounted to “a small section” of window that had been shattered at a community center being used as a voting location in Cesar E. Chavez Park.
The minor vandalism got widespread attention on Monday when the Los Angeles County Registrar’s Office — which manages local elections — sent out a statement assuring voters that “voting operations were not disrupted.” In the same statement, they mentioned a separate incident in downtown Los Angeles on Sunday morning where a “limited number” of mail-in ballots had been burned inside a ballot drop box.
Officials said the damage appeared to be “isolated” and involved a “small number of ballots.”
“Any attempt to vandalize election facilities, damage voting materials, or interfere with the voting process is unacceptable,” LA County Board Chair and First District Supervisor Hilda Solis said in a statement. “We take these incidents seriously and will continue working with election officials and law enforcement partners to protect voters and uphold the integrity of our elections.”
Police said they did not discover any nexus between the vandalism in Long Beach and the election.