A Boston man has been arrested in connection with the burning of a ballot box in the Back Bay over the weekend, police said.
Worldy Armand, 39, is set to be arraigned Monday in Boston Municipal Court on a charge of willful and malicious burning, according to police.
Armand allegedly set fire to a drop box containing more than 100 ballots outside the Boston Public Library around 4 a.m. Sunday.
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.
Around 10:50 p.m. Sunday, officers assigned to the Drug Control Unit were patrolling the Copley Square area when they saw Armand, who police say matched the description of the ballot drop box suspect.
They learned that Armand reportedly had an active straight warrant out of Ipswich District Court for receiving stolen property.
He was taken into custody and members of the Fire Investigation Unit identified him as the suspect of the burned ballot drop box incident, police said.
Out of the 122 ballots inside the burned drop box, 87 were still legible and able to be processed, Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin’s office said. The box had last been emptied around 2:30 p.m. on Saturday.
Voters can go online to see whether their ballot was processed. Those who used that drop box 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,” Galvin’s office said.
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