Kentucky Becomes at Least the 33rd State Hit by Suspicious Letters to Election Offices

FRANKFORT, Ky.

Federal investigators are examining a suspicious envelope delivered to Kentucky's elections office last week, making Kentucky at least the 33rd state caught up in a nationwide string of threatening letters sent to election officials, according to the reporting of the Courier Journal and WEKU. According to the Courier Journal, the FBI and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service are investigating an envelope containing a letter and a "white, powdery substance" that was delivered to the Kentucky State Board of Elections office in Frankfort on the morning of October 16.

'We take these threats seriously'

Taylor Brown, who serves as general counsel for the board, told the Courier Journal that preliminary tests determined the substance was not hazardous, though investigators have yet to confirm what the substance was. "We take these threats seriously, but we're not going to let them deter safe and secure elections from occurring in Kentucky," Brown said, according to the Courier Journal.

WEKU reported that staff at the board were ready for the possibility. Because election offices around the country had already received similar envelopes, WEKU reported, staff were on the lookout for such a letter, did not open it and called the FBI to examine it — and because the substance was determined not to be harmful, the building did not have to be evacuated, according to WEKU.

The same markings as Louisiana and Oklahoma

According to WEKU, Brown said the Kentucky envelope bore the same return address, postmark, stamp and handwriting as an envelope received by the Louisiana secretary of state's office earlier that week, which also contained a threatening letter and a white powdery substance. The Courier Journal reported a similar pattern across states: the Kentucky envelope shared similarities with those received in Oklahoma and Louisiana, all featuring a New York City return address, a Dallas postmark and a similar handwriting style. The Courier Journal also reported that Brown said he does not know whether investigators have opened the Kentucky envelope to determine whether its letter matches the others.

WEKU reported that Brown has not been told by the FBI what the enclosed Kentucky letter said. The Louisiana letter with identical features, as Brown described it to WEKU, "was a message to election officials warning of civil war coming on Election Day, and that election officials that participated would be left to suffer the penalty for treason." WEKU further reported that, according to Brown, the Louisiana letter made references to immigrants and communists and complained about states that did not turn over private voter information to the Trump administration.

WEKU reported that the voter-data dispute sits close to home in Kentucky: according to WEKU, Kentucky is one of four states with a Republican chief election official that has not turned the data over, and the Department of Justice has an ongoing lawsuit against Secretary of State Michael Adams over the issue. WEKU reported that Adams' office said Monday it had not itself received one of the letters.

A campaign spanning at least 33 states

WEKU reported that Kentucky is now at least the 33rd state where election officials have received such a letter, noting that WIRED reported Monday that election officials in 32 other states had received one. WEKU also reported that Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams' office said Monday it had not yet received such a letter. The Courier Journal reported that elections offices and capitol buildings in multiple states, including Louisiana, Arizona, Ohio and Oklahoma, had received letters containing a white powder.

The federal response has been active as the letters spread. WIRED reported that federal agencies alerted election offices in some states that a potentially dangerous package was on its way — in Alaska, WIRED reported, the FBI notified authorities on a Friday that an envelope was expected the next day, and the Postal Service identified it the following morning. WIRED also reported that the white powder in the letters opened so far has been reported as not harmful, even as election offices remain on high alert.

The mailings have not been limited to state election offices. NPR reported on October 15 that the letters also reached congressional offices, and that Sen. Alex Padilla said the U.S. Postal Service intercepted one before it reached his office, according to NPR.

Election officials condemn the threats

The Kentucky delivery arrived two days after the nation's top election-official associations spoke out together. In an October 14 joint statement, officials with the National Association of Secretaries of State and the National Association of State Election Directors said they are "deeply concerned by these incidents," according to the Courier Journal. "As we have each stated in the past, threats against election officials and workers have no place in our democracy," the officials wrote in the statement, as reported by the Courier Journal. "Those who administer our elections should never fear for their safety while carrying out their essential duties."

Neither the Courier Journal, WEKU nor NPR reported that authorities have identified who sent the letters, and the investigation described by the Courier Journal remains ongoing. What officials in Kentucky have said, through Brown's comments to the Courier Journal, is that the work of running the election continues on schedule. The letters land in a tense season for election administration — see Previously's coverage of the League of Women Voters' lawsuit over voter data and federal voting-crime charges in California, and follow the latest on the Previously news front.