Suspicious letters sent to election offices spur alarm

Suspicious letters were sent to local elections officials in at least four states, authorities said Thursday, including to two locations in Washington state that were said to include white powders containing the toxic drug fentanyl.

Preliminary tests indicated that letters sent to at least two of four Washington election offices — in Spokane County and King County, which includes Seattle — contained fentanyl, law enforcement officials said.

Georgia authorities said that a letter bound for the election office in Fulton County, which includes much of Atlanta, had been flagged as potentially including fentanyl but had not yet been delivered. And California authorities said that they were uncertain what was in letters sent to election offices in Sacramento and Los Angeles.

Fentanyl can be fatal if ingested even in small doses, but in general, experts say, skin contact such as what might occur when opening a letter poses little risk. None of the affected election offices reported that any employees were injured.

The letters come as election offices nationwide are seeing a growing array of threats and aggressive behavior that has followed baseless charges of election fraud in recent years.

Beyond the two California cities and Georgia, the letters targeted election offices in Lane County, Oregon, which includes Eugene; and King, Spokane, Pierce and Skagit counties in Washington.

At least two of the mailings were reported to include messages, but beyond an apparent call to stop the election sent to the Pierce County Elections office in Tacoma, their nature was unclear. The Pierce County mailing included a white powder later identified as baking soda.