‘This isn’t what we bargained for’: Suspicious packages delay election results across Washington

Wash. — Multiple counties in Washington have encountered election interference after suspicious pieces of mail with white powder started arriving after the election.

Those counties include King, Pierce, Skagit, Spokane, and Snohomish Counties.

“This isn’t normal, this isn’t what we bargained for when we woke up the other day ready to serve the residents of Pierce County,” Linda Farmer, the auditor for Pierce County, said. “We’re a little behind due to the incident yesterday but we’re catching up.”

Farmer said that because they had to evacuate the building on Wednesday, they were behind counting by about 10,000 ballots.

KIRO 7 obtained photos of the envelope and letter that was sent to Pierce County.

The letter said in part, “End elections now. Stop giving power to the right that they don’t have. We are in charge now and there is no need for them.”

Officials said they do not know who sent the mail or what their intentions are. The FBI told KIRO 7 that it is investigating, and that similar interference happened in other states like California, Nevada, Georgia, and Oregon.

“And this domestic terrorism is not going to slow that down. But what you have done is caused fear amongst the election workers who are just trying to do their jobs,” Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs said.

He told KIRO 7 that he tried to get an election worker safety bill passed in the last legislative session, but it failed to go through.

“Some in the legislature felt that making a Class C felony was going too far. But clearly, this is showing that it probably doesn’t go far enough to tell you the truth,” Hobbs said. “Let’s just get this bill through. Let’s add some protections to our election workers. And that’s the right thing to do. I mean, democracy rests upon free and fair elections, and these domestic terrorists or terrorist are targeting the elections.”

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