DOVER, Del. - The Delaware Department of Elections State Election Commissioner’s Office has been temporarily relocated following a suspicious mail incident on Oct. 15.
According to the Delaware Department of Elections, the Delaware Department of Health and Social Services Division of Public Health completed the initial testing of the white powdery substance.
This is after employees at the Dover office opened a letter containing an unidentified white powdery substance on Oct. 15 around 2 p.m. Staff followed security protocols and U.S. Postal Service instructions for handling suspicious mail. The letter was isolated, employees were decontaminated and evacuated, and the building's heating, ventilation and air conditioning system was shut down, according to the department.
The initial test results show that no hazardous substances were detected.
The department says confirmatory testing of the white powdery substance is in progress and final test results are expected by Wednesday of next week. Leaders indicated that it has a high degree of confidence that the confirmatory test results will be negative as well.
The State Election Commissioner’s Office will operate out of the Department of Elections Kent County Office until further notice. The DOE Kent County Office address is now 100 Enterprise Place, Suite 5, Dover, DE 19904.
The Commissioner’s Office and all Department of Elections offices statewide have resumed normal operations. The department said election preparations including all public meetings and absentee ballot processing are proceeding uninterrupted, and the DOE is fully prepared to welcome voters to Early Voting Sites statewide next Thursday, October 22, 2026, the scheduled first day of the 10 day early voting period.
Law enforcement and state and federal partners responded to the office to investigate and test the substance. The Department of Elections said all election offices across Delaware sent nonessential state employees home out of an abundance of caution.
This comes as packages, also with a mysterious powder, were sent to election offices in Ohio, Louisiana and Oklahoma, NBC reports.
