Election offices in at least 32 states have received or been targeted by suspicious letters, some containing white powder. The substances tested so far have been nonhazardous, but the harassment campaign is forcing evacuations days before the midterms.
Election workers across America are opening the mail with a level of caution normally reserved for bomb squads. A coordinated-looking wave of suspicious letters has targeted election offices in at least 32 states just two weeks before the midterms.
WIRED contacted election officials in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., and found that offices in 32 states had either received one of the letters or been targeted by the campaign. Many were intercepted by the U.S. Postal Service before reaching their destination, but several made it into election offices and triggered evacuations.
The first widely reported incident happened in Louisiana. An employee opened an envelope, white powder fell out, the office was cleared and the worker was taken to the emergency room as a precaution before testing showed the substance was not harmful.
Similar envelopes have reached offices in Arizona, Delaware, Oklahoma and South Carolina, among other states. In many cases, postal workers or federal authorities intercepted the packages before election staff had to find out what was inside.
So far, the powders that have been tested have reportedly been nonhazardous. That is obviously good news for the people handling the mail, but it does not make the campaign harmless because whoever is sending these letters appears to understand exactly what white powder in a government envelope is designed to evoke.
The FBI and U.S. Postal Inspection Service are investigating, with Homeland Security also involved in responding to suspicious mail sent to government offices. No suspect or organizing group has been publicly identified.
Some of the envelopes falsely listed the Democratic Socialists of America as the sender. DSA has denied any involvement, and there is currently no evidence connecting the organization to the mailings.
The timing is what turns a bizarre harassment campaign into an election-security problem. These offices are already processing ballots, preparing polling places, training workers and fielding conspiracy-fueled complaints, and now some of them are adding hazmat evacuations to the daily checklist.
An envelope does not have to contain poison to cause disruption. If a building clears out for hours, law enforcement locks down the mailroom and employees spend the afternoon answering investigators instead of preparing ballots, the sender has already succeeded in stealing time and attention.
Federal agencies have been warning some states in advance that suspicious packages may be headed their way. In Alaska and Utah, postal and election officials were able to watch for the letters before they reached the intended offices.
Utah officials publicly vowed that the intimidation would not disrupt the election. That defiance has been echoed by election administrators elsewhere, who have spent several cycles learning that simply counting votes now apparently comes with the occupational hazard of being targeted by strangers.
The campaign also lands in a political environment where election workers have already faced threats, harassment and accusations of fraud. Since 2020, many local officials have left the profession entirely after becoming targets of conspiracy theories and personal abuse.
WIRED’s current accounting is 32 states, not 33. Kentucky officials told the outlet they had not received one of the letters at the time of its reporting, so the verified number matters more than making the map look one state scarier.
There is still plenty investigators do not know. The public does not know whether one person is responsible, whether the mailings are coordinated by a group, or whether the main goal is ideological, personal or simply intimidation for its own sake.
What is clear is that election offices from one side of the country to the other are being forced to treat ordinary envelopes like potential crime scenes. The powder may be harmless, but the message being sent is not.
