{"id":8975,"date":"2026-10-19T19:28:33","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T19:28:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=8975"},"modified":"2026-10-19T19:28:33","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T19:28:33","slug":"election-offices-in-at-least-32-states-have-received-suspicious-letters-in-the-last-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=8975","title":{"rendered":"Election Offices in at Least 32 States Have Received Suspicious Letters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>At 12:20 pm last Tuesday, an official in the Louisiana secretary of state\u2019s office opened a mailed letter and white powder fell out. The office was immediately evacuated and the employee was rushed to the emergency room. The employee was not injured and subsequent tests showed that the substance was not harmful. By Wednesday, the office was back open.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">\u201cTuesday\u2019s event did not impact any election operations in preparation for the upcoming election,\u201d Trey Williams, a spokesperson for Louisiana\u2019s secretary of state, tells WIRED.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">But the incident was not isolated. A WIRED investigation has found that over the course of the following days, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/2024-us-election-polling-location-militarized-security\/\" class=\"text link\">election offices<\/a> in at least 31 other states were targeted with similar letters as they prepared for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/this-is-how-trump-is-already-threatening-the-midterms\/\" class=\"text link\">midterms<\/a> that are now just two weeks away. Many of the states have made public statements acknowledging the receipt of these letters, but WIRED\u2019s accounting of all the incidents shows the full scale of this campaign for the first time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">The vast majority of letters were intercepted by the United States Postal Service before they reached their intended targets, state officials tell WIRED, but in Arizona, Delaware, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Louisiana the letters were not intercepted, leading to election offices being evacuated when white powder was discovered.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">The states that confirmed receipt of a letter are: Alaska, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">Election officials in 10 states\u2014Vermont, Michigan, New York, Rhode Island, Texas, West Virginia, Colorado, Kentucky, Indiana, North Carolina\u2014and DC tell WIRED they have not received any suspicious packages. The eight remaining state election offices did not respond.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">The white powder contained in the letters that have been opened so far has been reported as not harmful, but election offices remain on high alert.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">\u201cWe are deeply concerned by these incidents,\u201d the National Association of Secretaries of State and the National Association of State Election Directors wrote in a joint statement. \u201cAs we have each stated in the past, threats against election officials and workers have no place in our democracy. Those who administer our elections should never fear for their safety while carrying out their essential duties.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">As news of the letters being sent emerged last week, federal agencies alerted other election offices in some states that a potentially dangerous package was on the way. The <a data-offer-url=\"https:\/\/www.chilkatvalleynews.com\/2026\/10\/18\/juneau-hazmat-team-intercepts-suspicious-envelope-addressed-to-state-division-of-elections\/\" class=\"external-link text link\" data-event-click=\"{&quot;element&quot;:&quot;ExternalLink&quot;,&quot;outgoingURL&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/www.chilkatvalleynews.com\/2026\/10\/18\/juneau-hazmat-team-intercepts-suspicious-envelope-addressed-to-state-division-of-elections\/&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.chilkatvalleynews.com\/2026\/10\/18\/juneau-hazmat-team-intercepts-suspicious-envelope-addressed-to-state-division-of-elections\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">FBI notified<\/a> authorities in Alaska on Friday that an envelope was expected to arrive the following day. At about 9 am Saturday morning, the USPS identified the suspicious package, the <a data-offer-url=\"https:\/\/www.chilkatvalleynews.com\/2026\/10\/18\/juneau-hazmat-team-intercepts-suspicious-envelope-addressed-to-state-division-of-elections\/\" class=\"external-link text link\" data-event-click=\"{&quot;element&quot;:&quot;ExternalLink&quot;,&quot;outgoingURL&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/www.chilkatvalleynews.com\/2026\/10\/18\/juneau-hazmat-team-intercepts-suspicious-envelope-addressed-to-state-division-of-elections\/&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.chilkatvalleynews.com\/2026\/10\/18\/juneau-hazmat-team-intercepts-suspicious-envelope-addressed-to-state-division-of-elections\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Juneau Independent<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/election-offices-in-at-least-32-states-have-received-suspicious-letters-in-the-last-week\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At 12:20 pm last Tuesday, an official in the Louisiana secretary of state\u2019s office opened a mailed letter and white powder fell out. The office was immediately evacuated and the employee was rushed to the emergency room. The employee was not injured and subsequent tests showed that the substance was not harmful. By Wednesday, the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8976,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[129,50,75,1534,454],"class_list":["post-8975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-gadgets","tag-elections","tag-government","tag-politics","tag-states","tag-voting"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Election Offices in at Least 32 States Have Received Suspicious Letters - Silvybrand Lifestyle Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"WIRED contacted officials in all 50 states and Washington, DC to uncover the extent of a harassment campaign ahead of the midterms.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=8975\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Election Offices in at Least 32 States Have Received Suspicious Letters - 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