Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon speaks Friday, Aug. 9, 2024 before a public accuracy test of voting equipment ahead of the primary election at the elections office at Dakota County Administration Center in Hastings, Minnesota. Photo by Nicole Neri for the Minnesota Reformer.
The Office of Secretary of State Steve Simon was sent a suspicious package, Simon said in a release Friday, underscoring the dangerous atmosphere for election administration officials in the runup to the 2024 election.
The FBI, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the State Patrol are investigating, and the office was evacuated.
The package was addressed to the office with a return address of “United States Traitor Elimination Army.”
Suspicious envelopes have been either received by election officials or intercepted by law enforcement in Utah, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Virginia and Wyoming, where the FBI is currently investigating suspicious activity, according to CNN.
In Nebraska recently, the secretary of state found an envelope at its elections division headquarters that contained a white powder, which police determined to be nonhazardous; that same day, a building in Topeka, Kansas was evacuated after authorities found “suspicious” packages sent to both the secretary of state and the attorney general. In Colorado, police intercepted a similar letter that contained a “harmless” white powder addressed to the secretary of state.
Simon said election officials would not be deterred from doing their work: “Threatening election officials is unacceptable and cannot be tolerated. Our democracy depends on public servants who must be able to perform their duties free from fear, intimidation or harassment. This action is not deterring our work or determination to deliver another election that is free, fair, accurate and secure. We will work with our law enforcement partners to ensure the person or persons responsible for this action are held accountable.”
The unnerving nationwide threats illustrate how administering elections has become a more dangerous job since President Donald Trump came on the political scene about a decade ago and began repeatedly questioning election results, despite the vanishingly small number of fraudulent ballots in the United States.
An annual survey of the Brennan Center for Justice found that 38% of local election officials “experienced threats, harassment, or abuse for doing their jobs.” That in turn has led to an exodus from the field, the Brennan Center found: More than one-third of local election officials know at least one person who resigned at least in part due to safety concerns, up from 22% in 2023, they reported.
States Newsroom contributed reporting.