DOVER, Del. - The Delaware Department of Elections State Election Commissioner’s Office has been temporarily relocated following a suspicious mail incident on Oct. 15.
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.
The FBI has taken over the investigation and the original Commissioner’s Office building is closed until further notice by DNREC. The United States Postal Inspection Service is also testing the envelope and its contents.
According to the department, 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.
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.
The department has not identified the substance or provided information about potential injuries or exposure-related illnesses. This comes as packages, also with a mysterious powder, were sent to election offices in Ohio, Louisiana and Oklahoma, NBC reports.Â
