Thursday, Nov. 9, 2023 | 3:07 p.m.
Suspicious letters were mailed to elections offices in at least five states — California, Georgia, Nevada, Oregon and Washington — and in four cases the letters contained fentanyl, the FBI and U.S. Postal Inspection Service reported in a statement to elections officials Thursday.
The Nevada Secretary of State’s Office, citing an ongoing investigation, could not detail which office or offices received a letter.
It issued a statement saying, “We are aware of the reports of suspicious letters addressed to election offices in multiple states, including Nevada, and we are in communication and coordinating with federal, state and local agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United States Postal Service, the Nevada Department of Public Safety and the Office of the Governor. As this is an ongoing investigation, we have no further comment at this time.”
It is unknown why Nevada or the other states were targeted.
One of the letters, released by the Pierce County Auditor’s Office in Tacoma, Wash., showed it had been postmarked in Portland, Ore.
The letter contained a warning about the vulnerability of “ballot drops” and read: “End elections now. Stop giving power to the right that they don’t have. We are in charge now and there is no more need for them.”
The letter featured an antifascist symbol, a progress pride flag and a pentagram. While the symbols have sometimes been associated with leftist politics, they also have been used by conservative figures to label and stereotype the left, and the sender’s political leanings were unclear.
One of the offices that appeared to be targeted was in Fulton County, Ga., which includes Atlanta and is the largest voting jurisdiction in one of the nation’s most important presidential swing states. Authorities were working to intercept the letter.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said officials were sending the overdose-reversal drug naloxone to the office as a precaution.
“This is domestic terrorism, and it needs to be condemned by anyone that holds elected office and anyone that wants to hold elective office anywhere in America,” said Raffensperger, a Republican.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
