News out of Maine

Authorities in Maine are investigating a claim that hundreds of blank ballots for this year's November election were delivered to a woman as part of her Amazon order.

Officials in Ellsworth, a coastal Maine city, reported to the state last week that 250 absentee ballots were missing in a delivery, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows said during an Oct. 6 news conference. The report came on the same day an unnamed woman in Newburgh, a small town about 41 miles northwest of Ellsworth, claimed that she found bundled, unmarked ballots inside her Amazon package.

The "suspicious events" are being investigated by the secretary of state’s law enforcement division along with the Maine Attorney General’s Office, Maine State Police, and federal law enforcement partners, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and U.S. Postal Inspection Service, according to Bellows. She declined to provide specific details on the incident, citing the ongoing investigation.

Bellows emphasized that the incident will not impact the Nov. 4 election. Oct. 6 was the first day of in-person absentee voting in the state for the election.

"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 news conference.

Maine authorities are working with the US Postal Service

The majority of state communities have received their shipments of absentee ballots, according to Bellows. She said four small towns have not yet received their ballots, but noted that the towns do not have office hours until later in the week.

Bellows said state authorities were working closely with the U.S. Postal Service to ensure that those four packages would arrive on time. She reiterated that the election process remained safe and secure, adding that law enforcement would find those responsible for the missing ballot incident.

"Our elections, and indeed, our democracy are under attack in new and different ways all of the time," Bellows said. "This year, it seems that there may have been attempts to interrupt the distribution of ballots and ballot materials, but we are stronger and better than anyone who tries to do our elections harm. Time and time again, election officials and law enforcement rise to meet the challenges we face."

Incidents of voter interference have made national headlines in recent years after the last three presidential elections were embroiled in accusations of interference. Multiple incidents involving interference allegations and other voting issues were reported in the weeks leading up to the 2024 presidential election, including voter registration ballots being damaged and ballot collection boxes being set on fire.

Report: Woman's Amazon package appeared to be tampered with

Bellows said she directed the secretary of state's law enforcement division to investigate the incident after it was reported that 250 absentee ballots were allegedly delivered to an unnamed woman in her Amazon package. The alleged incident was "obviously outside of the appropriate chain of custody," Bellows said.

She gave a brief timeline of the events during the news conference, saying the city of Ellsworth received its expected shipment of two boxes of absentee ballots on Sept. 30. But one of the boxes did not contain five packets of ballots, which totaled 250 ballots, according to Bellows.

The Ellsworth City Clerk's office then notified the state's elections division about the missing ballots, she said. The elections division launched an investigation and reached out to their partners, including the printer and authorized carrier.

On the same day, Bellows said it was reported by a conservative blog that the woman in Newburgh had allegedly received five packets of state absentee ballots in an Amazon box. State authorities contacted the woman's legislator and the conservative blogger.

"But at no point on Tuesday did anyone in Newburgh contact the secretary of state's elections division or law enforcement," Bellows said.

The Maine Wire reported that the woman was expecting a delivery of rice, paper plates, and a toy lightsaber, but instead discovered the ballots inside her Amazon package. The package appeared to be tampered with, according to the Maine Wire, as it was already opened and re-taped when it arrived.

Contributing: Kinsey Crowley, Jeanine Santucci, and Joel Shannon, USA TODAY

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Maine investigating claims ballots were found in a woman's Amazon order

Reporting by Thao Nguyen, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect