NSP investigating ‘suspicious white powder’ sent to Secretary of State’s office

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – The Nebraska State Patrol is investigating a suspicious piece of mail that was sent to the Secretary of State’s office Monday morning.

At 9:45 a.m., NSP Capitol Security was sent to the Secretary of State’s office in the Cornhusker Hotel at 13th and M streets.

The Lincoln Fire & Rescue Hazmat team removed the item from the building and found an unknown white powder in the envelope, according to officials.

The white powder was field tested and it was determined that it was not hazardous.

Secretary of State Bob Evnen said he’s not sure where the envelope came from.

“The source of this mail, we’re not sure what the source was,” he said. “We’re not sure where this mail came from but there were several other states who received similar envelopes today.”

Evnen reassured voters and poll workers that they will be safe on Election Day.

“Our election officials all understand that there’s a heightened interest in elections,” he said. “The security and integrity of elections is something that people are concerned about, and they respect that.”

But a situation like this is enough to put people on edge, especially considering the current political environment.

“It seems a little tense,” Evnen said. “There have been two assassination attempts on a former president who is a candidate. We’ve never had that before. So there’s a certain amount of intensity to this election season that we haven’t seen.”

He said despite the incident, there’s no reason to believe that there are any concerns for voters on Nov. 5.

“We’ll keep our heads up on that and we’re going to do our job to keep people safe,” Evnen said. “The vast majority of Nebraskans are not a threat to their friends and neighbors who conduct elections.

Officials said there is no danger to the public and operations at the Cornhusker have returned to normal.

NSP said they are still investigating with the FBI and U.S. Postal Service.