Suspicious letters reached state election offices.

WASHINGTON — The FBI and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service said Thursday they are investigating suspicious mailings, including some sent to state election officials and lawmakers ahead of the Nov. 3 midterms, Reuters reported. The FBI said some of the letters contained an unknown substance. A spokesperson for Senator Alex Padilla, Democrat of California, said the Postal Service intercepted a letter with a suspicious substance mailed to one of his offices.

Brendan Donahue, a deputy chief inspector, said some letters had been intercepted and the investigation was open. “We are committed to protecting our nation’s election officials from threatening and dangerous mail. Any threat or attack on an election official is unacceptable,” he told reporters. The associations of secretaries of state and of state election directors said Wednesday that a series of suspicious letters went to state election offices. The House sergeant at arms told staff that some letters with a suspicious white powder reached public officials. This desk is not naming a powder, and it is not counting letters the wire did not count.

Any threat or attack on an election official is unacceptable.

The photograph shows two workers moving an official ballot drop box on a residential street. It is the mail of an election, not the letters under investigation and not a substance. The States desk files the offices, not one city.