Envelopes carrying unidentified substances have been turning up at congressional and election offices across the country — Maryland among the locations affected — prompting federal investigators to open an inquiry and advise anyone who receives such mail to treat it as a potential health hazard.
Details of the probe — carried out jointly by the FBI, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and the U.S. Capitol Police — came to public attention through a communication from the Senate Sergeant at Arms that a news outlet obtained and reported on. According to the advisory distributed to Senate offices, authorities were actively working to intercept any further correspondence of that kind, though the possibility remained that some pieces could still reach their intended recipients.
Within Congress, any exposure at that point appeared confined to the Senate chamber, while House members kept watch on developments — details relayed by a source who lacked authorisation to speak about the investigation on the record.
Both the FBI and the Postal Inspection Service have opened a joint probe into a string of mailings deemed suspicious, with deliveries reported at locations across the country — among them offices tied to the Secretary of State and their affiliated election operations. Investigators found that a number of the envelopes held an unidentified material, and agencies have been coordinating with law enforcement partners to address each case. An investigation into the origin of the letters is under way, with partners brought in to help trace whoever sent them.
Envelopes carrying an unidentified powder arrived at voting administration offices in Louisiana and Oklahoma, prompting staff to clear both buildings. Postal inspectors stopped an envelope containing white powder before it could reach the Ohio secretary of state's office, and that official noted that similar parcels had turned up at election offices in multiple other states.
Election offices in both Mississippi and South Dakota were among the targets of separate mailing campaigns, though postal workers intercepted those pieces before they reached their destinations, state officials reported.
DeMarinis, who oversees elections administration in Maryland, told reporters he received an email notification that federal law enforcement had intercepted postal items destined for the State Board of Elections office in Annapolis, and he called on those responsible to bring the situation to an end. He described the mailings as tools intended to pressure election officials and suppress voter participation, adding that his commitment to overseeing the election process would not be undermined by them.
Federal voter-registration data became the subject of litigation when the administration pursued legal action against DeMarinis in the period before a closely watched midterm election. No details about the package or its contents were passed along to him by those in charge. DeMarinis also conveyed appreciation for the protection provided by law enforcement to both him and his team.
The arrival of the mailings roughly three weeks ahead of Election Day draws a parallel to an episode in 2023, when mailings carrying a white powder were delivered to election offices across six states. Voting operations at the local level were thrown off schedule in a handful of those instances. A number of election offices subsequently stocked naloxone — the medication used to reverse opioid overdoses — after certain mailings arrived carrying both threatening language and traces of fentanyl.
A joint statement from two election-administration organisations — the National Association of Secretaries of State alongside the National Association of State Election Directors — addressed reports of threats aimed at poll workers, urging that those responsible for carrying out voting functions be able to perform that work free from concerns about their own physical safety. Brendan Donahue, a deputy postal inspector, told members of the press that threats or attacks directed at election officials have no place in a functioning system, and that law enforcement is coordinating with partner agencies to track down whoever sent the letters.
