From The Maine Wire: A Newburgh resident expecting an Amazon delivery of rice, paper plates and a toy lightsaber instead opened a box to find 250 state election ballots.
The discovery raised alarms about election security, leading the Maine Republican Party Chairman to call for a federal criminal investigation as the state is mere weeks from deciding on whether it will join 36 other states in requiring some form of Vote ID.
The package arrived Tuesday looking beat up and re-taped, as if tampered with. Inside, along with household items, were bundles of ballots packaged in tamper-evident packs of 50 — the same format used for official shipments to local clerks. Election officials who reviewed photographs confirmed the documents appear to be authentic 2025 ballots.
The woman who received the shocking shipment immediately contacted her local town clerk, who took possession of the ballots.
The incident happened just 35 days before Maine’s Nov. 4 election, where voters will be deciding on a high-stakes initiative on requiring voter identification.
The voter ID issue has stirred up hot emotions on both sides, as Republicans say voter ID will protect the integrity of elections, and Democrats are crying that requiring voter ID will shrink their vote totals by as many as 13,000 statewide.
The Maine Secretary of State, Shenna Bellows, is a Democrat, and is running for governor of the state. When a reporter asked her about the mysterious ballots in the Amazon shipment, she fled.
Steve Robinson, editor of The Main Wire, shared the following statement, along with photos of the Amazon order, in a post on X:
State officials took custody this AM of the 250 election ballots delivered 9/30 to a private residence within an Amazon package. Two detectives (w/ the SoS office, not the MSP proper) were observed retrieving the ballots from the town office safe.
The materials, which gave every appearance of being authentic 2025 ballots for the Nov. 4 election, must have been further confirmed as valid, bc the recipient of the package tells me MSP detectives later contacted her to take custody of the shipping materials.
@ShennaBellows office hung up the phone when an @TheMaineWire reporter called with questions.
So far we have no answers as to how this happened, what went wrong, and how many other hundreds or thousands of ballots may be circulating outside the legally required chain of custody.
Ballots in an Amazon Box Discovery Overshadows Maine Secretary of State Bellows’ Governor Campaignhttps://t.co/Rs3IqZmH1X
— The Maine Wire (@TheMaineWire) October 2, 2025
READ MORE fromThe Maine Wire.
WATCH the news report below for more details.
Follow us on X (Formerly Twitter.)
The DML News App: www.X.com/DMLNewsApp
