Trump threatens to close email-in votes before mid-2026
President Donald Trump threatened an executive order to close mail-in voting before the mid-term of 2026.
Maine officials are investigating allegations that hundreds of blank votes were delivered to women in this November election as part of the Amazon order.
Officials from Ellsworth, a coastal Maine city, reported last week that 250 absentee ballots have disappeared from the state on delivery, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows said at an Oct. 6 press conference. On the same day, an unknown woman from Newburgh, a small town about 41 miles northwest of Ellsworth, claimed she had found an unmarked vote bundled in an Amazon package.
“Suspicious events” are being investigated by the Secretary of State’s Law Enforcement Department, along with partners in federal law enforcement agencies, including the Maine Attorney General’s Office, Maine Police, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Postal Service. According to Bellows. She refused to provide specific details about the incident, citing the ongoing investigation.
Bellows emphasized that the incident would not affect the November 4th election. October 6th was the first day of in-person absentee voting in the state for the election.
“Even if the most enterprising criminals could produce Maine ballots and Maine absentee ballot envelopes, or if their custody was broken, elections would be free, safe, safe and protected for checks and balances on absentee ballots,” Bellows said at a press conference.
Maine authorities are working with the US Postal Service
According to Bellows, the majority of the state’s communities receive absentee ballot shipments. She said the four small towns have not yet received a vote, but the town has no opening hours until the second half of the week.
Bellows said state officials are working closely with the US postal service to ensure that these four packages arrive on time. She added that the election process is safe and secure and that law enforcement will find the person responsible for missing voting cases.
“Our elections, and in fact, our democracy, are always under attack in new and different ways,” Bellows said. “It appears that there have been attempts this year to suspend the distribution of votes and voting materials, but they are stronger and better than those who are trying to harm the election.
The Voter Interference Case has made national headlines in recent years after the past three presidential elections were caught up in accusations of interference. Several cases, including allegations of interference and other voting issues, were reported in the weeks leading up to the 2024 presidential election.
Report: Woman’s Amazon packages appeared tampered
Bellows said it directed the Secretary of State’s law enforcement department to investigate the case after it was reported that 250 absentee ballots had been delivered to an unknown woman on an Amazon package. The alleged case “evidently outside of proper custody,” Bellows said.
She held a short timeline of the event during the press conference, saying that the city of Ellsworth received a predicted shipment of two boxes of absentee ballots on September 30.
The Ellsworth office of the clerk’s office has since notified the state’s election division of the lack of votes, she said. The election department has launched an investigation and contacted partners, including printers and licensed carriers.
On the same day, Bellows said from a conservative blog that a Newburgh woman was allegedly receiving five packets of state absentee ballots on an Amazon box. State officials contacted female lawmakers and conservative bloggers.
“But no one in Newburgh contacted the Secretary of State’s election department or law enforcement on Tuesday,” Bellows said.
Mainwire reported that the woman was expecting delivery of rice, paper plates and toy lightsabers, but instead found a vote in the Amazon package. According to the main wire, the package appeared to be tampered as it had already been retaped when it was opened and arrived.
Contributions: Kinsey Crowley, Jeanine Santucci, Joel Shannon, USA Today
