The FBI and the United States Postal Division are investigating suspicious programs gained by means of election officers in 17 states.
Federal investigators stated they have been amassing the programs and that some contained “an unknown substance”, although there have been no experiences of accidents.
They have been despatched to secretaries of state and state election officers throughout a swathe of the rustic from New York to Alaska.
It comes amid experiences of emerging threats directed at election officers throughout the United States and warnings of political violence as November’s presidential election approaches.
The FBI and US Postal Division stated they have been seeking to decide what number of letters have been despatched and who used to be in the back of them, in addition to their reason.
“One of the letters contained an unknown substance and we’re operating intently with our regulation enforcement companions to reply to each and every incident and safely acquire the letters,” the businesses stated in a remark to BBC’s US spouse CBS Information.
The Related Press information company reported that programs have been despatched to election officers in Alaska, Georgia, Connecticut, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Missouri, New York, Rhode Island, Iowa, Mississippi, Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Wyoming.
Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold wrote in a put up on X, previously Twitter, that whoever posted the letters had known as themselves because the “US Traitor Removal Military”.
Officers in a minimum of 4 of the states stated there used to be no risk posed by means of the ingredients discovered within the programs. In Oklahoma, the Board of Elections stated the substance used to be discovered to be flour.
In an interview with CBS, Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, stated her place of work used to be receiving threats day by day via voicemails, emails, social media or in individual, including that “it’s escalating”.
This isn’t the primary time suspicious mail used to be mailed to US election places of work.
Closing November, places of work in Georgia, Nevada, California, Oregon and Washington have been despatched envelopes with fentanyl or different ingredients.
Federal investigators are one by one wondering a gunman who used to be discovered lurking in timber on a Florida golfing direction the place Trump used to be placing on Sunday.