Suspicious packages sent to election offices in 16 US states as threats mount

A hazmat crew investigates after a suspicious package was delivered to election officials at the Missouri secretary of state’s office in Jefferson City on Tuesday. Photograph: Summer Ballentine/AP

An investigation has been launched after suspicious packages, some containing white powder, were sent to election officials in 16 states, intensifying fears of disruption to the forthcoming US presidential election.

Election offices in Alaska, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Tennessee, Wyoming, Oklahoma, Georgia, Missouri, Mississippi, Massachusetts, Indiana, Rhode Island, Maryland, Colorado and Connecticut all confirmed receiving suspect mail, triggering a joint investigation by the FBI and the US Postal Service (USPS).

In one case, a package from a sender purporting to be “the United States Elimination Army” and marked with a return address in Maryland was sent to officials in the Nebraska elections division, according to the Washington Post.

In a joint statement issued with the USPS, the FBI said it was collecting packages from what the agencies called “a series of suspicious mailings sent to election officials in several states.

“We are also working with our partners to determine how many letters were sent, the individual or individuals responsible for the letters, and the motive behind the letters,” the statement said.

The substance in some cases turned out, on inspection by local authorities, to be flour.

Dispatch of the packages was disclosed two days after a suspected second assassination attempt on Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, in two months. It comes amid a febrile and increasingly toxic political atmosphere, punctuated by violence and threats and reports from several fronts of the specter of Russian interference, as well as rising fears among election officials and others that the outcome of the 5 November election could be subject to multiple challenges from committed partisans unwilling to accept the result and ready to intimidate election workers.

The National Association of Secretaries of State, a nonpartisan body of public officials responsible for administering elections and voting procedures, said the packages were part of “a disturbing trend”.

“With less than 50 days until the … [election] we are seeing a disturbing trend continue – the second assassination attempt of a presidential candidate, and threatening and intimidating actions towards election officials,” the association said. “This must stop, period. Our democracy has no place for political violence, threats or intimidation of any kind.”

It is the second time in the past year that suspicious mail has been sent to election officials in multiple states. The latest episode came to light after postal voting – which has been labelled as corrupt by Trump and his supporters, who disparaged the practice to bolster their false accusations that the 2020 election was stolen – has already begun in several states.

The development comes after Microsoft published a report citing evidence of increased evidence of attempted Russian interference in November’s poll. It identified attempts to denigrate the character of Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, with fake videos.

In one instance, researchers found that a Russian covert disinformation operation created a video featuring a paid actor who falsely claimed that Harris had inflicted injuries on her in a 2011 hit-and-run incident.

The fictitious claim was disseminated by a fake website for a nonexistent San Francisco news outlet named KBSF-TV. The Russian group responsible, which Microsoft called Storm-1516, is described as a Kremlin-aligned troll farm.