Congressional and election offices across the country have been receiving envelopes identified as potentially hazardous, a pattern that has drawn a federal investigation — coming about two days after staff at the Louisiana Secretary of State's Office in Baton Rouge were evacuated when a package containing an unidentified white powder was found on the premises.
Three federal agencies — the FBI, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and the U.S. Capitol Police — launched efforts to identify whoever sent the mailings, with election offices across several states, among them Louisiana and Oklahoma, counted among those affected. Details of the inquiry reached the public after a Senate Sergeant at Arms communication, dated Oct. 15, was obtained and published by a news outlet on Thursday.
Around 12:20 p.m. that Tuesday — Oct. 13 — a staff member working within the Elections Division at the Louisiana Secretary of State's Office opened a package and found an unidentified white powder inside. In a Tuesday statement, Landry — serving as Secretary of State — noted that the Elections Division had been cleared of personnel and the building's ventilation system powered down as a precautionary measure.
Situated along Essen Lane, the office serves Baton Rouge from that address. Workers gathered outside the facility for a prolonged stretch, though no instruction to leave for the day was issued. No order went out requiring all personnel in the Secretary of State's Office to vacate the building.
FBI agents were on the scene, working to identify the substance. Authorities confirmed that nobody sustained any harm in the incident. No details about the substance's identity have been made available to the public, and the package's point of origin along with the sender's identity remain undisclosed by authorities.
Federal investigators are examining a series of mailings sent to addresses nationwide, including state election offices, the FBI announced Thursday. The bureau's statement noted that some envelopes contained an unidentified substance and that the FBI is coordinating with law enforcement partners to address each incident and identify those responsible. Separately, the Senate Sergeant at Arms notified congressional offices that additional mailings of this nature could reach recipients even as law enforcement works to intercept them. Anyone who received one of the envelopes was advised by federal officials to treat it as a potential health or safety risk.
An envelope holding an unidentified white powder prompted the evacuation of staff from an Oklahoma election office. A package containing white powder sent to Ohio's state election office was intercepted by the U.S. Postal Service, according to a statement from Ohio's secretary of state. Across a number of states, authorities have received accounts of comparable correspondence being distributed.
No public statement from authorities has addressed whether the packages shared a common substance or traced back to a single sender. With the Nov. 3 election fewer than three weeks away at the time, the timing of the episodes drew attention.
Across six states, election offices received comparable packages that caused disruptions throughout 2023. Investigators found that a portion of the correspondence had been used to deliver fentanyl, an opioid, alongside written threats. In response to those earlier incidents, a number of election offices acquired naloxone — a drug administered to counteract opioid overdoses — as a precautionary measure. As of this week, no official verification has come forward to establish what the intercepted parcels actually contained.
Two election-administration bodies — the National Association of Secretaries of State and the National Association of State Election Directors — issued a joint statement calling for the protection of poll workers, with both groups stating that those who run elections should be able to carry out their duties free from any threat to their personal safety. On Thursday, Deputy Postal Inspector Brendan Donahue also objected to the incidents, stating that threats or attacks directed at election officials have no place in acceptable conduct.
No detention notices have been issued and no individual has been publicly named as a person of interest in the mailing investigation, according to federal authorities. Inquiries into the matter have yet to be concluded.
