Election and state officials in at least six different states opened up mail containing "suspicious packages" of white powder yesterday. Fortunately, so far, tests have found the substances to be non-hazardous.
The threatening mail was sent to offices in Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Tennessee, Wyoming and Oklahoma, just seven weeks from Election Day.
At least one of the packages of white powder, in Oklahoma, turned out to be flour. In Wyoming, however, officials haven't yet disclosed what the substance was, or if it was hazardous.
In Kansas, which was gifted with at least two suspicious packages, one looked like the suspicious mail sent to the other five states. But a second larger package was also sent to the Kansas Secretary of State's Office and Attorney General's Office, and according to KCUR, "the state fire marshal was on scene and requested the FBI respond to collect the package."
From AP News:
"We have specific protocols in place for situations such as this," Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate said in a statement after the evacuation of the six-story Lucas State Office Building in Des Moines. "We immediately reported the incident per our protocols."
A state office building in Topeka, Kansas, was also evacuated due to suspicious mail sent to both the secretary of state and attorney general, Kansas Highway Patrol spokesperson April M. McCollum said in a statement.
Topeka Fire Department crews found several pieces of mail with an unknown substance on them, though a field test found no hazardous materials, spokesperson Rosie Nichols said. Several employees in both offices had been exposed to it and had their health monitored, she said.
In Oklahoma, the State Election Board received a suspicious envelope in the mail containing a multi-page document and a white, powdery substance, agency spokesperson Misha Mohr said in an email to The Associated Press. The Oklahoma Highway Patrol, which oversees security for the Capitol, secured the envelope. Testing determined the substance was flour, Mohr said.
State workers in an office building next to the Wyoming Capitol in Cheyenne were sent home for the day pending testing of a white substance mailed to the secretary of state's office.
In February, envelopes filled with a mysterious white powder were sent to Judge Arthur Engoron and AG Letitia James. Fortunately, those menacing packages turned out to be non-hazardous.
