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Letters stuffed with white powder have been mailed to election offices in at least six states, as officials brace for threats and possible violence in the final week before the midterms.
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officials → sign → midterms
The FBI and US Postal Inspection Service told the Daily Mail that they are continuing to investigate up to 100 suspicious mailings sent to election administrators this month.
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they → tell → administrators
The news has put state and local officials increasingly on edge in the run-up to Election Day as millions of Americans stream to polling places across the country and prepare to cast their ballots.
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millions → put → ballots
It's unclear who is to blame for the suspicious mailings.
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who → blame → mailings
Some election officials have cited the incendiary rhetoric President Donald Trump, warning that his repeated claims of voter fraud could expose people to additional threats.
Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes blamed Trump for 'ginning up' divisiveness ahead of the midterms, describing the president's actions in a CNN interview as 'wholly and completely irresponsible.'
'Unfortunately, the president has a very broad reach and his audience takes him very seriously,' Fontes said.
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Fontes → cite → him
'I have personally had colleagues who had their dogs poisoned,' he added.
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he → have → colleagues
'My own family has been threatened.
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family → threaten → ?
I have been threatened.'
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I → threaten → ?
The White House has defended its election-related actions as necessary to prevent voter fraud and enforce federal election laws.
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House → defend → laws
President Donald Trump speaks during the RNC convention in Dallas, Texas.
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Trump → speak → Dallas
Trump has told voters to 'pretend he is on the ballot' to gin up GOP support for the November elections
This 2020 photo shows election specialists packing up bags in a room filled with counted ballots the day after the election in North Carolina
A scene from the US Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, after protesters breached the nation's capitol in a bid to stop Congress from certifying the results of the presidential election
'
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protesters → tell → election
No one has done more than President Trump to ensure America has free and fair elections,' Lauren Bis, a White House spokeswoman, told the Daily Mail.
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Bis → do → Mail
The threats, meanwhile, have continued.
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threats → continue → ?
More than 100 letters were sent to state and local election sites in October, law enforcement officials said, and officials in Louisiana, Ohio, and Oklahoma all reported being targeted.
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officials → send → Louisiana
In Louisiana, one state employee was taken to the hospital as a precaution after opening the letter, and the building was evacuated.
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building → take → letter
More than three dozen congressional offices have been targeted by letters in recent weeks containing a white powdery substance.
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offices → target → substance
At least 10 people were exposed to white powder sent to the New York offices of Democrats Hakeem Jeffries, Ritchie Torres and Tom Suozzi, local outlets reported earlier this month.
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outlets → expose → Jeffries
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, California Democratic Senator Alex Padilla, Republican Senator Mike Rounds of South Dakota and Ted Cruz in Texas have also appeared to be targeted with mailings, according to ABC News and Axios.
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Schumer → appear → News
The threats have left state and local election officials scrambling to train their staff to prepare and respond to a growing list of threats.
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officials → leave → threats
Many have been working with groups like the nonpartisan Committee for Safe and Secure Elections (CSSE), comprised of current and former election officials and law enforcement personnel that conducts security trainings for state and local election staff.
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that → work → staff
Tina Barton, the co-chair of the group, told the Daily Mail she has led more than 140 security trainings for state and local election staff in the run-up to the November 3 elections - a sharp increase from 2024, when she led around 67.
Demand, she said in an interview, has 'substantially increased' in the past two years - due to the rise of new, sophisticated technologies, as well as an awareness from the law enforcement community that these threats 'aren't going away.'
The group briefs sheriffs offices, election workers, and police departments on emerging threats, deescalation techniques, and other safety measures.
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group → tell → threats
They also run 'tabletop exercises' to prepare for responding to bomb threats, suspicious packages, swatting and disruption from possible drone use.
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They → run → use
A voter fills out his ballot for the first day of in-person voting in Kansas.
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voter → fill → Kansas
Other states are on alert following the multiple state election offices that were targeted by suspicious letters containing an 'unknown substance'
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that → follow → substance
Despite their local roles, these individuals receive an outsize amount of harassment and threats - a Brennan Center study conducted this year found that 32 percent of election officials said they have been 'threatened, harassed, or abused' for doing their job.
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they → receive → job
Barton, a former Republican city clerk in Michigan, has experienced this harassment first-hand.
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Barton → experience → harassment
'I had my life threatened in 2020,' she told the Daily Mail, referring to a man who called her and vowed to kill her and her family in deeply explicit terms.
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who → have → terms
The individual, Andrew Nickels, of Carmel, Indiana, was charged with making interstate threats to an election worker, and was sentenced to more than a year in prison in 2023.
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individual → charge → 2023
Now, she's hoping to protect other election officials from experiencing the same.
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she → hop → same
Barton said politicians with a following must choose their words carefully.
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politicians → say → words
'Every action they take evolves into a reaction by people who believe them and trust them,' she said.
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she → take → them
'We all have a responsibility when we know we have authority.
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we → have → authority
Faith in the system is incredibly fragile: Just six in ten Americans say they would trust the election results, according to a new ABC News/Ipsos poll.
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they → say → poll
A PBS News/Marist survey earlier this month found that 30 percent of voters believe violence might be necessary to get the country back on track.
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violence → find → track
Some states have moved to beef up security at polling locations in response, and embrace a bevy of unique solutions to protect election workers this November.
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states → move → workers
Some counties in Georgia and Nevada have issued ‘panic buttons’ at polling locations, which that transmit GPS coordinates and photographs directly to the local sheriff’s offices and emergency dispatchers in the event they are pressed.
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they → issue → event
In Los Angeles County, election workers have teamed up with bomb-sniffing canine teams to screen incoming mail.
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workers → team → mail
And in Durham County, North Carolina, polling sites are now equipped with bulletproof glass, security cameras, and state-of-the-art mail ventilation rooms - including a separate exhaust system to contain potentially hazardous substances.
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sites → equip → substances
The flurry of threats comes as the president has pushed for greater federal control over elections during his second term.
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president → come → term
He signed two executive orders seeking to regulate states’ use of mail-in ballots, an effort blocked last month by the Supreme Court - and has repeatedly claimed that noncitizens are voting illegally, despite studies that show such cases are extremely rare.
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cases → sign → studies
…and 8 more, not listed.
The Aporia
