Days before absentee voting started in the state, a Newburgh woman said she found 250 Maine absentee ballots in an Amazon package. Just a few days later, absentee voting envelopes were reportedly found out of state, prompting a sweeping investigation into something that’s never happened before in Maine.
The discovery of the ballots and the revelation that ballots were also missing from another Maine municipality have drawn sharp criticism from Republicans in both chambers of the Legislature.
In the more than a week since the ballots were first discovered, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a Democrat who is running for governor, has released little information about her office’s ongoing investigation into the matter. However, she has repeatedly said Maine’s elections are safe and secure.
It still remains unclear how exactly the ballots got into the Newburgh woman’s package, or how absentee voting envelopes were sent out of state. But in a press conference on Oct. 6, Bellows intimated that the events could be deliberate.
“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 process harm,” she said at a State House news conference.
In the days since, Bellows hasn’t elaborated on that statement, but in a Friday radio appearance on WVOM, she said again that this could have been a deliberate act or an accident. Either way, Bellows said she has confidence law enforcement will find out what exactly happened.
While concrete information about what investigators have found remains scant, here’s what we know:
What happened?
On Sep. 30, a Newburgh resident reportedly found 250 authentic Maine absentee ballots in an Amazon package. The Maine Wire, the conservative media arm of the Maine Policy Institute, first published the claims the next day. The story included comments from the Newburgh woman who found the ballots, whom the Wire did not identify in its story. When the Bangor Daily News identified and reached out to the woman quoted by the Wire, she declined to comment.
The Newburgh woman contacted town officials, and she brought the ballots to the town office just before the office was set to close Sept. 30, the town of Newburgh said in a statement released by its lawyer, Tim Pease. At 8 a.m. the next day, town officials called the secretary of state’s office to alert them of the find, Pease said. Later that morning, officials from the secretary of state’s office came to Newburgh and collected the ballots.
Earlier Sept. 30, when ballots were delivered to Ellsworth, election officials quickly discovered they were missing 250 ballots and alerted the secretary of state’s office, Bellows told reporters in a press briefing on Oct. 6. Bellows also confirmed her office wasn’t contacted about the ballots found in Newburgh until the following morning.
Bellows hasn’t specifically said the ballots found in Newburgh were those that were missing from Ellsworth, as that is still part of an ongoing criminal investigation involving police from her department, as well as the FBI and other agencies.
At her press briefing, Bellows also said the investigation has expanded after a private organization outside of the state reportedly received a package containing Maine absentee voting envelopes.
In a statement, an Amazon spokesperson said the company is cooperating with the investigation, and based on the company’s initial findings, it appears this package was “tampered with” outside of Amazon’s fulfillment and delivery network.
Both the ballots and the Amazon package received in Newburgh were shipped using UPS. The company did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
The reaction
After the Wire reported the claims, Maine Republican leaders were quick to question the integrity of the state’s election system and called for a federal inquiry before authorities had determined the facts of the strange allegation. Republican leaders from the Maine House and Senate sent a letter to both FBI Director Kash Patel and U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi requesting a federal investigation into Bellows, in light of the allegations from Newburgh.
“Given Secretary Bellows’ continued refusal to comply with federal law and her complete lack of transparency, we request the Department of Justice immediately open an investigation into the security of Maine’s elections,” the letter said.
Bellows has drawn ire from Republicans since her move to disqualify President Donald Trump from Maine’s 2024 primary ballot, which was later overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Republicans also cited the situation as evidence of vulnerabilities in the state’s election system and reiterated support for the coming voter ID referendum.
The referendum, which voters will decide on in less than a month, seeks to require voters to show ID for both in-person and absentee voting and would direct the secretary of state to issue free ID cards to voters without a driver’s license. The proposal would allow voters without a photo ID to complete a “challenged ballot” and then, within four days, present a photo ID to their local elections official.
The proposal also would no longer allow telephone applications for absentee voting, nor allow voters to automatically receive absentee ballots without submitting a separate request for each election. It would also require municipalities to have only one secured drop box for returning absentee ballots.
The Dinner Table, a political committee led by Rep. Laurel Libby, R-Auburn, and conservative activist Alex Titcomb, has been spearheading the effort to get the referendum on the ballot.
“I’m not happy with the explanation that [Bellows] gave today, and I don’t think the Maine people should be either,” Libby told the Bangor Daily News following Bellows’ press conference Monday.
How ballots move around the state
Ballots are printed by Augusta print shop J.S. McCarthy, which has been supplying the ballots Mainers use for many years, said Jana Spaulding, a spokesperson for Bellows’ office.
The ballots are sealed and marked clearly as ballots. Then, they are shipped from the printer to municipalities via the U.S. Postal Service or UPS. When the ballots are delivered, they must be signed for, and the given municipality has to send back to the secretary of state’s office a ballot receipt certifying they got the ballots needed.
When it comes to absentee voting, there is a return envelope for every individual who requests a ballot, and that ballot must be sealed and the envelope signed by the voter to be counted. The counting of absentee ballots is also done in public view ahead of Election Day, where observers from either major political party can inspect and object to certain ballots. If any ballot is returned that doesn’t conform to standards, that ballot is discarded and not counted.
BDN writer Billy Kobin and editor Michael Shepherd contributed reporting.
Bangor Daily News investigative reporter Sawyer Loftus may be reached at sloftus@bangordailynews.com.