The FBI and the US Postal Inspection Service are investigating letters sent to state officials and election offices across the country containing an “unknown substance”. Just weeks before November’s US midterm elections, election officers in Louisiana and Oklahoma received envelopes containing a powdery substance, leading to evacuations. A similar package containing white powder was also sent to the Ohio secretary of state, but the US Postal Service intercepted the package.
The US Senate sergeant at arms, who serves as chief law enforcement for the Senate, informed members of the upper chamber on Thursday of the investigation in a message, obtained by the . The notice said law enforcement officials were working to intercept additional mail, but it is possible some could reach their destination. Federal authorities have urged recipients to treat the mail as “potentially hazardous”.
Brendan Donahue, a senior official with the US Postal Inspection Service, confirmed the investigation into the suspicious mailings during a press conference on Thursday. Any threat or attack on an election official is unacceptable,” Donahue said. The US Postal Inspection Service referred the Guardian to the FBI.
In a statement, the FBI said it would not confirm specific instances but said that it was “investigating a series of suspicious mailings sent to various addresses nationwide, including Secretary of State office and their related election officers” alongside the US Postal Inspection Service. In Oklahoma, state troopers determined the substance mailed to the Oklahoma State Capitol complex was non-hazardous. In Cook county, Illinois, an envelope containing only white powder was sent to Maria Pappas, the treasurer, on Thursday morning, prompting a response from local emergency responders and law enforcement.
The powder turned out to be baking powder, Pappas’s office confirmed to the Guardian. Too bad that normal folk have to have their guard up when a minority of folk lash out with their craziness,” Pappas said in a statement. Two organizations representing secretaries of state and state election directors released a joint statement raising alarm at the mail containing the unknown substance.
The National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) and National Association of State Election Directors (NASED) “are deeply concerned by these incidents”, the organizations wrote in a statement on Wednesday. During the 2024 election, at least 14 election offices across the country had received mail containing white powder. In some cases, the substance turned out to be flour.
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