Ballots Were Burning in a Los Angeles Drop Box and Karen Bass Has Some Explaining to Do

Someone set fire to mail-in ballots in a downtown Los Angeles drop box the night before voters chose Karen Bass's replacement.

The arson hit the same county that already watched ballots burn in 2020 – and still did nothing to fix it.

Now Los Angeles officials are scrambling to explain why their supposedly secure drop boxes keep becoming targets right before the votes that matter most.

Los Angeles Ballot Drop Box Burns the Night Before the Mayoral Election

The fire-damaged ballots turned up Sunday morning when workers made their rounds at a drop box outside the Department of Public Social Services in downtown Los Angeles's Civic Center.

The county's own registrar confirmed staff found ballots with fire-related damage inside an official drop box – the kind California election officials have spent years telling you is perfectly safe.

The same morning, vandals hit a vote center at Cesar E. Chavez Park in Long Beach.

Two separate incidents.

One city.

One night before the most watched mayoral race in Los Angeles in a generation.

Los Angeles County Registrar Dean Logan called it "isolated" and promised voters would be contacted about replacement ballots.

He did not explain why the drop box had no camera that stopped it, no fire suppression system that worked, and no overnight monitoring that caught it in time.

Mail In Ballot Security Failed in Los Angeles Before and It Failed Again

This is not Los Angeles's first burned drop box.

In 2020, a ballot drop box outside the Baldwin Park Library caught fire in a suspected arson attack – firefighters had to cut the box open with a power saw to recover the ballots inside.

Los Angeles officials responded to that incident the same way they're responding now.

They called it isolated.

They promised it wouldn't happen again.

It happened again.

The pattern doesn't stop at LA County borders.

In October 2024, arsonists hit two drop boxes in Portland and Vancouver just eight days before the presidential election – hundreds of ballots in Washington state were destroyed after the box's fire suppression system did not stop the blaze.

Boston, Massachusetts had a drop box arson in 2020.

Phoenix had a postal box set on fire days before the 2024 election.

Election officials in every one of these cities gave the same press conference afterward.

They called it isolated.

They said the system was secure.

They moved on.

What Karen Bass Built Is Now Burning

The timing here is not incidental.

Spencer Pratt – the reality television star who lost his home in the Pacific Palisades fire while Bass was traveling in Ghana – was running within four points of the incumbent mayor in the final polling before Tuesday's election.

Bass at 26%.

Pratt at 22%.

A city councilmember named Nithya Raman at 25%.

Under Los Angeles rules, if no candidate breaks 50%, the top two advance to a November runoff – and Pratt had a real shot at forcing exactly that outcome.

Democrats built California's mail-in voting system.

Democrats expanded drop box access.

And every time a Republican raised security concerns after 2020, Democrats called it misinformation and election denialism and moved on.

Now their system is literally on fire the night before a race their incumbent might lose.

Los Angeles County has not released the number of damaged ballots, identified a suspect, or explained what caused the fire.

The same thing they told you in 2020.

Sources:

• Gregory Lyakhov, "Burned Mail-In Ballots Found in Los Angeles Drop Box DAYS BEFORE Mayoral Election," The Gateway Pundit, June 1, 2026.
• "Calif.: Fire Damage Identified on Mail-In Ballots in LA Ahead of Primary Elections," One America News Network, June 1, 2026.
• "The Los Angeles Mayoral Primary Is Tomorrow and the Election Shenanigans Have Already Begun," Townhall, June 1, 2026.
• "LA Mayoral Race Tightening: Spencer Pratt Challenging Democratic Establishment," ABC affiliate report, June 1, 2026.
• "MTV Star Spencer Pratt Gaining in Los Angeles Mayoral Race Against Karen Bass," CNBC, May 28, 2026.