AUGUSTA, Maine — Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, testifying throughout Monday’s Veterans and Authorized Affairs Committee assembly in Augusta, acknowledged on the report that “the ballots and envelopes moved exterior of the chain of custody whereas underneath UPS management”, a direct admission that lands on the heart of the controversy that erupted after roughly 250 clean absentee ballots supposed for Ellsworth had been found inside an Amazon bundle delivered to a house in Newburgh.
The video, taken from a Maine State Legislature Zoom listening to, reveals Bellows explaining that the Secretary of State’s workplace “used Very important Supply to ship the Election Day ballots… throughout the state” after the difficulty was “rapidly recognized,” whereas additionally conceding that the ballots and envelopes left custody safeguards “whereas underneath UPS management.”
The Amazon field that sparked a statewide scramble
A Newburgh resident obtained an Amazon supply that appeared opened and re-taped and contained in the field had been her gadgets together with bundles of roughly 250 clean Maine absentee ballots wrapped in plastic.
That very same day, Ellsworth officers reported 250 absentee ballots lacking, which state election officers later confirmed matched the Newburgh bundle.
State officers have emphasised that the ballots had been clean and couldn’t be used with out corresponding signed envelopes, however the central query has remained unanswered: how did official state ballots wind up combined into a non-public Amazon cargo and delivered to a entrance porch?
FBI, then UPS — and now an admission that raises much more questions
Because the scandal unfolded, Bellows provided shifting explanations for who was investigating.
At one level, Bellows mentioned the FBI was conducting the investigation. Later, on Election Day, she indicated that UPS was doing the investigation.
Now, Bellows’ newest admission, that the ballots and envelopes moved exterior the chain of custody whereas underneath UPS management, solely complicates the difficulty additional, as a result of it underscores that the breakdown occurred within the very window the place accountability and documentation are imagined to be hermetic.
“We won’t cease till we now have solutions.” — however the place are the solutions?
Within the early fallout, Bellows publicly insisted, “We won’t cease till we now have solutions,” and warned that “dangerous actors” could be caught and punished. However critics argue Monday’s testimony makes your complete episode look worse, not higher.
They level to what nonetheless hasn’t materialized: no clear public findings, no rationalization for the way ballots ended up inside a non-public Amazon cargo, and no indication the general public has been given the fundamental accounting that ought to observe an incident involving official election supplies.
The quiet courier change that raised much more questions
In the midst of the fallout, Bellows changed UPS with Very important Supply to deal with supply of Election Day ballots.
An electronic mail from Elections & Voter Registration Director Heidi M. Peckham knowledgeable municipalities that official ballots could be delivered by Very important Supply and that the “Official Poll Receipt deadline has modified to the date you obtain your ballots.”
Bellows’ workplace declined to reply questions in regards to the association, and a search of state contract information turned up no report of a proper settlement with Very important Supply. Bellows ran from this reporter at a South Portland No Kings rally this fall once I requested her in regards to the firm change.
What the video provides
Till now, the general public story has largely centered on the weird end result, ballots inside an Amazon field, and the state’s behind-the-scenes courier change.
Bellows’ testimony provides one thing extra direct and extra damaging: an on-the-record acknowledgment that the ballots and envelopes left the chain of custody, and that it occurred whereas underneath UPS management, sharpening the identical query that has hung over the scandal from the beginning, who was accountable, what precisely occurred, and why has the general public nonetheless not been given straight solutions?
