Maine Investigates Report of 250 Mail Ballots Found in Amazon Package

‘There may have been attempts to interrupt the distribution of ballots,’ the secretary of state said, as GOP officials called for a federal inquiry.

Ballots in Raleigh, N.C., in a file picture. Allison Joyce/Getty Images

Maine authorities are investigating claims that dozens of unmarked ballots that were to be used in next month’s elections were found inside a woman’s Amazon order.

Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, during a news conference at the Maine State House in Augusta, said that the Maine town of Ellsworth reported that it was missing a shipment of 250 absentee ballots.

She added that, around the same time, a woman in the town of Newburgh, Maine, told authorities that she found 250 ballots wrapped in plastic in a package that contained her Amazon order.

“I have full confidence that law enforcement will determine who is responsible, and any bad actor will be held accountable,” Bellows said, adding that “this year, it seems that there may have been attempts to interrupt the distribution of ballots and ballot materials.”

The secretary of state did not elaborate and did not provide other examples. Bellows did not say whether investigators have found out how the ballots made it into the Amazon order.

Bellows, a Democrat who is seeking the Maine governor’s seat in next year’s midterm election, stressed that the state’s “elections are free, safe, and secure.” She also defended absentee voting in the state, saying that voting by mail is secured by several processes.

“Even if the most enterprising criminal were able to fabricate Maine ballots or Maine absentee ballot envelopes, or if that chain of custody were broken, our elections would remain free, safe, and secure because of the checks and balances in absentee voting itself,” Bellows said at the press conference.

The state is scheduled to hold its elections on Tuesday, Nov. 4, which will decide two statewide referendum questions along with several local races. State law stipulates that absentee, or mail-in, voting as well as early in-person voting, are available starting in October.

But the secretary said that the recent Amazon ballot finding “will not impact our elections.”

Republicans in the state, however, said that the ballot incident needs to be investigated by the federal government.

“Getting absentee ballots out of the Secretary of State’s Office should be like getting Gold Bars out of Fort Knox, not like taking candy from a baby!” Jim Deyermond, chairman of the Maine Republican Party, said in a statement this past week on social media. “Republican, Democrat, Independent, Green, and even Communist Parties should be disgusted with Shenna Bellows.”

This past week, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) was asked by the Portland Press Herald about the ballots as she was taking questions outside a Red Cross facility in Portland.

“This is such a bizarre and troubling incident … so it definitely warrants an investigation,” Collins told the outlet.

Maine’s top Republicans in the Democratic-majority Legislature on Oct. 1 said in a Facebook post that they sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel requesting an investigation into the claims. The letter states that the person who received the package, whom it does not name, informed their town office about the discovery.

“Maine elections should be safe, secure, and transparent. At this point, public trust can only be restored by an external investigation into this incident and Maine’s election security practices at large,” GOP legislators said in the Facebook post.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.