Election offices in King, Pierce, Skagit and Spokane counties were evacuated Wednesday after unknown white powder was found in envelopes, including traces of fentanyl in mail received by two of the offices.
Law enforcement confirmed the presence of fentanyl in the envelopes sent to Spokane and King counties Wednesday afternoon. No employees were harmed by the substance in either county.
In King County, Detective Robert Onishi with the Renton Police Department confirmed that a "presumptive" field test on the powder determined it contained fentanyl. The substance will require further lab testing to confirm and determine how much. Renton police have turned the investigation over to the FBI and, according to Onishi, cannot confirm whether the envelopes were related.
Spokane Police Department spokesperson Julie Humphreys also said fentanyl was found in the envelope at the Spokane County Elections office.
While fentanyl cannot cause overdoses from contact, the envelopes halted ballot counting in three major local elections for which ballots were due Tuesday night.
In Tacoma, those votes are deciding the fate of a measure to adopt renter protections; in Spokane, a mayoral race is too close to call; and in King County, several county positions and Seattle City Council races are neck and neck.
Gov. Jay Inslee called the incidents "the latest attack on democracy."
"We are confident our vote counting process will maintain the integrity it has always demonstrated," Inslee posted on the social media platform X. "We will count the votes and declare the winner. We all need to recommit to that principle."
Halei Watkins, communications manager for King County Elections, said staffers in Renton opened a piece of mail that contained white powder late Wednesday morning. The piece of mail was not a ballot. Watkins said no staffers appeared to become ill, but hazmat crews and law enforcement cleared the office.
King County resumed counting after the office was deemed safe, and posted the results of a smaller batch of votes by 4 p.m.
Tacoma police confirmed a hazmat response at the Pierce County Elections Office at about 8:45 a.m., after an elections worker found an envelope "that dispersed a white powdery substance."
Washington State Patrol and Tacoma fire crews responded and determined the substance was baking soda, according to William Muse, a police spokesperson.
A message inside the envelope said "something to the effect of stopping the election," Muse said. "There was no candidate that was identified. There was no religious affiliated group identified. There was no political issue identified. It was just that vague statement."
The employee who found the envelope was wearing gloves, and no injuries were reported. By 11:05 a.m., the building was safe to occupy again, according to the Fire Department.
Vote results for Pierce County also were posted around 4 p.m.
Humphreys confirmed the explosives disposal unit and the Spokane Fire Department hazmat team responded to and evacuated the Spokane County elections office after, again, a piece of mail with powder was opened around 10:30 a.m. Wednesday.
The employee who opened the mail was unharmed, according to Patrick Bell, a spokesperson for Spokane County Elections.
No votes were posted in Spokane County on Wednesday, Bell said, and election workers there were sent home.
Skagit County also didn't update results.
The FBI declined to answer specific questions about the suspicious letters and whether they were connected.
There was no indication of similar events taking place at other election offices in other parts of the United States.
According to the Washington Secretary of State's Office, the incidents illustrate how serious threats to the election process are.
"The safety of staff and observers is paramount as elections workers across the state open envelopes and count each voter's ballot," Secretary of State Steve Hobbs said in a release. "These incidents underscore the critical need for stronger protections for all election workers. Democracy rests upon free and fair elections. These incidents are acts of terrorism to threaten our elections."
Hobbs noted that King County and Okanogan County election officials received suspicious substances in envelopes during the Aug. 1 primary election. The Okanogan County envelope was determined to be unharmful while King County's contained "trace" amounts of fentanyl.
Wednesday's incident also comes on the heels of a series of items containing suspicious powders being sent to multiple Seattle-area synagogues last week, causing a similar concern in the local Jewish community.
The appearance of these suspicious letters over the past week is an unnerving reminder of letters laced with anthrax and ricin, which can be deadly when inhaled, sent through the U.S. mail in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. Those letters killed five people and sickened 17 others. The FBI closed its investigation into the anthrax attacks in 2010, after years of false leads, no arrests and public criticism.
