More than 20 election offices have been targeted with suspicious packages this week

By Marshall Cohen, Sara Murray and Ali Main, CNN

(CNN) — Suspicious packages were sent this week to election offices in more than 20 states, leading to an FBI investigation, triggering evacuations and rattling staff, according to a CNN survey of state offices and Associated Press reporting.

The threatening envelopes arrived as election officials across the country prepare for Saturday’s deadline to send the first ballots to overseas and military voters and as states are weeks away from the widespread start of in-person early voting and mail-in balloting.

According to CNN and AP reporting, suspicious envelopes were received by election officials, or intercepted on the way to officials in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia and Wyoming.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said Thursday that his office has been notified by the US Postal Service that a suspicious package was “headed our way,” and that the mail service will try to intercept it, as it previously did last November when an envelope of fentanyl was sent to an election office in Fulton County.

“We’re on the lookout for it, and so are they,” Raffensperger said of the package.

Karen Brinson Bell, the executive director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections, told CNN that that the battleground state was also targeted this week.

Bell said staff are now wearing gloves while processing the mail and isolating parts of the office when they find a suspicious item that might be contaminated. An official from the Kentucky Secretary of State’s office also told CNN that, after this week’s incident, they directed staff to wear gloves while handling mail, “out of an abundance of caution.”

“When we have to take these extra measures, it really adds to the workload and it really adds to the anxiety that we have about doing our job, that really what we want to do is make sure people are able to vote,” Bell said.

Officials in Kansas and New York said in statements and interviews that, after the letters were noticed, they evacuated their offices. There are some early indications that at least some of the letters did not actually contain any dangerous chemicals or substances.

Oklahoma officials said testing by a local hazmat team “identified the substance as wheat cereal” or “flour.” David Becker, who runs the nonpartisan Center for Election Innovation & Research and advises election officials across the country, said Tuesday that some his contacts in the states told him that “the powder appears to be innocuous.”

“Clearly, this is an attempt to terrorize the public servants who run our elections,” Becker said, praising “Republicans and Democrats” who helm local election offices. “These efforts to terrorize our public servants are not succeeding, which is good news.”

At least some of the envelopes had a return address in Takoma Park, Maryland, and claimed to be from a group called the “United States Traitor Elimination Army,” according to a photo of one of the envelopes that was obtained by CNN.

“The FBI and U.S. Postal Inspection Service are investigating a series of suspicious mailings sent to election officials in several states,” the FBI said in a statement. “Some of the letters contained an unknown substance and we are working closely with our law enforcement partners to respond to each incident and safely collect the letters.”

The FBI said federal investigators are now trying to determine how many letters were sent, who put them in the mail and “the motive behind the letters.”

This is the second national wave of suspicious envelopes the past year after a similar incident last November. A source involved with a group that coordinates with election officials across the country told CNN the 2023 incident led many of these offices to step up precautions and safety measures, so they were better protected this time around.

This story has been updated with additional details.

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