In October 2025, a rumor circulated online that an unnamed woman in Newburgh, Maine, received hundreds of 2025 state referendum ballots alongside her order in an Amazon delivery package.
One X page (archived) posted photos allegedly showing the ballots in a cardboard box alongside regular items like paper plates and a bag of rice. The caption read, in part: "A woman in Maine received 250 state election ballots packaged inside her Amazon delivery of food and toys. This needs to be investigated IMMEDIATELY."
Examples of the claim appeared on Facebook (archived) and Reddit (archived), and Snopes readers also searched our site and sent us emails seeking more information about the story.
Although reputable news media outlets like The Independent and ABC News reported on the claim, it was not possible to independently verify its veracity as of this writing. We also could not confirm whether the ballots were authentic and valid for use in Maine's Nov. 4, 2025, referendum election.
The pictures circulating online originated from an Oct. 1, 2025, article (archived) in the Maine Wire but were not attributed to any source. Further, the woman referenced in the story was not named and therefore could not be contacted. Maine Wire, a digital news media outlet in the New England state, is a project of the Maine Policy Institute, which described itself (archived) as having a "reputation as a center-right think tank" and as sharing "a similar philosophy" to the conservative Heritage Foundation (archived, archived).
On Oct. 6, Maine's Secretary of State Shenna Bellows held a news conference (archived) in which she discussed absentee voting security and shared more information about the alleged misplaced ballots. Bellows did not directly confirm whether the woman really did receive 250 ballots in her Amazon delivery. As such, we have left the claim unrated.
Snopes contacted Maine's Department of the Secretary of State for confirmation of whether the claim was accurate and to inquire about the authenticity of the ballots. We will update this story if we receive a response.
A spokesperson for the Maine Department of Public Safety confirmed via email that law enforcement under the authority of the Maine secretary of state's office was investigating the matter. They said
An Amazon spokesperson confirmed via email that the company was cooperating with law-enforcement agencies investigating the incident and noted that someone outside of the Amazon fulfillment and delivery network could have tampered with the package.
What we know
During her news conference, Bellows said she was unable to share information received from law enforcement as she did not want to "compromise an ongoing investigation." She said the information she was able to share came from the state's Elections Division.
Throughout her remarks, she repeatedly used the word "allegedly" when referring to the story about a woman in Newburgh receiving 250 absentee ballots in her Amazon delivery box. Bellows outlined which departments were involved in the investigation (detail in brackets ours):
As soon as we became aware of that situation, I directed my secretary of state's law-enforcement division to investigate. That division is working closely in collaboration with the Maine Office of Attorney General, with the support of Maine State Police [contradicting what the Maine Department of Public Safety said via email], and in collaboration with federal law enforcement partners including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Postal Service investigation team to determine what happened. […] Any bad actor will be held accountable.
The Maine secretary of state confirmed that on Sept. 30, "the city of Ellsworth received two boxes of absentee ballots as planned," but that "one of those boxes did not contain five packets of ballots totaling 250 ballots." She later added: "It is true that the number of ballots missing in Ellsworth corresponds to the number of ballots received in Newburgh. Ellsworth and Newburgh are 40 miles apart."
Bellows explained that the Ellsworth clerk's office notified the Elections Division, which reached out to the printer of the ballots and the authorized carrier to investigate. She continued:
Also on Tuesday [Sept. 30], as publicly reported, an unnamed woman in Newburgh, Maine, allegedly received five packets of Maine absentee ballots in an Amazon box. The unnamed woman's legislator and a conservative blogger were contacted and notified of events, but at no point on Tuesday did anyone in Newburgh contact the secretary of state's Elections Division or law enforcement. A conservative blogger emailed a staffperson at the secretary of state's office at 1:31 a.m. on Wednesday [Oct. 1], noting that he would post online immediately. The Newburgh town office called the Elections Division at 8 a.m. promptly on Wednesday morning to report the ballots received. Secretary of state detectives went immediately to Newburgh and ballots were secured.
The Maine secretary of state added that all absentee ballots "have been carefully tracked" and that all the state's towns "have now received their expected ballot shipments," although four packages destined for some smaller towns "have not yet arrived." Bellows also said the incident would "not impact our election."
On Oct. 2, the Honest Elections Project, a nonpartisan organization that works to defend the integrity of the voting process, submitted a Maine Freedom of Access Act request, an act granting anyone access to public records related to government activities, regarding the ballots. The organization requested access to numerous documents and communications regarding Maine's referendum ballots.
Members of the Maine House of Representatives also commented on the alleged diverted ballots, with some citing concerns (archived) of voter fraud and others calling (archived) for Bellows to resign.
A group of Maine Republican representatives and senators sent a letter (archived) to FBI Director Kash Patel and U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi requesting a Department of Justice investigation into the "security of Maine's elections" and an FBI investigation into any "potential violations of federal law." As stated above, Bellows said the FBI was involved in the investigation.
For further reading, Snopes previously investigated whether 28 million mail-in ballots went missing in four elections between 2012 and 2018. We also fact-checked whether millions of mail-in ballots were improperly sent to people who did not request them in the 2020 election and whether a video authentically reported that a Pennsylvania woman attempted to drop off four mail-in ballots at a drop box for the 2024 U.S. elections.