Maine Woman Finds 250 Unmarked Absentee Ballots Inside Amazon Package: Report

Staff Writer
(Archive photo)

In a bizarre and deeply alarming twist just weeks before Maine’s pivotal November 4 election, a woman in Newburgh opened her Amazon package to find something she never ordered: 250 unmarked absentee ballots.

State officials confirmed this week that the ballots were intended for the town of Ellsworth—about 40 miles from Newburgh—but never made it to their destination. Instead, they somehow ended up in a private Amazon delivery. Now, the Maine Secretary of State, state law enforcement, and the FBI are all digging into what went wrong, and whether someone tried to interfere with the state’s election process.

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Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows addressed the discovery during a press conference Monday, where she confirmed the town of Ellsworth had reported a missing shipment of 250 absentee ballots. That same day, the unnamed woman in Newburgh told officials she found a bundle of plastic-wrapped ballots stuffed into her Amazon box.

“I have full confidence that law enforcement will determine who is responsible,” Bellows said. She didn’t mince words about what might be at play: “This year, it seems that there may have been attempts to interrupt the distribution of ballots and ballot materials.”

She did not elaborate on how such a thing could happen or whether other similar incidents have occurred—but she made clear this isn’t being brushed off as an innocent mistake.

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The ballots were unmarked, which means they hadn’t been filled out. But the fact they ended up in the hands of a private citizen instead of election officials is causing serious concern. Not only is absentee voting already underway, but this year’s ballot includes a controversial, GOP-backed initiative that would require photo ID at the polls, limit drop box usage, and overhaul absentee voting rules. In other words, the integrity of the absentee process is already under a microscope.

Local officials fired off a letter last week to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel, calling for a full-scale federal investigation. They claim the woman who found the ballots immediately notified her local town office, but beyond that, details are thin. The DOJ and the town of Newburgh both declined to comment.

Meanwhile, Amazon insists the problem didn’t start with them.

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“Based on our initial findings, it appears that this package was tampered with outside of our fulfillment and delivery network, and not by an Amazon employee or partner,” the company said in a statement. Still, they’re cooperating with investigators.

What no one has answered yet is how 250 official government-issued ballots ended up rerouted into a completely unrelated private delivery. Was it a mix-up? A political stunt? An attempt to undermine the election from within?

Right now, all anyone knows for sure is that something went very wrong. And it couldn’t have happened at a worse time.

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