In 2025, Maine held a statewide referendum election built around two measures labeled “citizen initiatives.” The results settled both proposals, but reports about mishandled absentee voting materials from the previous month have kept uncomfortable election security questions alive, as reported by Red State.

Question 1 asked voters: “Do you want to change Maine election laws to eliminate two days of absentee voting, prohibit requests for absentee ballots by phone or family members, end ongoing absentee voter status for seniors and people with disabilities, ban prepaid postage on absentee ballot return envelopes, limit the number of drop boxes, require voters to show certain photo ID before voting, and make other changes to our elections?”

Question 2 asked: “Do you want to allow courts to temporarily prohibit a person from having dangerous weapons if law enforcement, family, or household members show that the person poses a significant danger of causing physical injury to themselves or others?”

Question 1 failed, with 64% of participating voters opposing it. Question 2, meanwhile, was approved with support from 63% of those who voted.

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The scrutiny surrounding Question 1 looks sharper in light of two incidents involving absentee ballots and envelopes that allegedly occurred one month before the election.

This box of Maine absentee ballot return envelopes was shipped to a residential house in Maryland.

The house happens to be the listed HQ for a Soros-funded electioneering non-profit. Maine's AG closed the investigation with no answers as to how it happened... https://t.co/UXFVlk2JFD — The Maine Wire (@TheMaineWire) October 26, 2026

Maine Wire’s Steve Robinson reported on both episodes at the time and later returned to the unanswered questions.

One incident involved 250 authentic absentee ballots allegedly delivered to a woman in Newburgh, Maine. The ballots arrived inside an Amazon package alongside items that she had actually ordered from Amazon.

The second incident concerned what Robinson described as “a box of Maine absentee ballot affidavit envelopes.” According to his reporting, the materials were sent to “a political non-profit in the DC area.”

498 ballot envelopes.

No answers. Here's the story of how Maine shipped sensitive election materials to a Soros-funded non-profit in Maryland, then killed the investigation into how it happened: https://t.co/Vju0FlAdCx — The Maine Wire (@TheMaineWire) October 26, 2026

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Secretary of State Shenna Bellows initially promised an investigation into both election security breaches until the “bad actor” responsible for mishandling the materials was identified. Bellows, however, never publicly announced the conclusion of either investigation.

Bellows later placed responsibility for the Newburgh ballot incident on UPS. In October 2025, her office stopped using UPS for Election Day ballot deliveries and moved that work to another courier, Vital Delivery.

“UPS fell down on the job, and that’s why the State of Maine does not use them for ballot delivery anymore,” Bellows said one year later while discussing the Newburgh ballots.

Documents obtained by The Robinson Report indicated that the separate investigation into the envelopes ended in the spring without an announcement.

A Freedom of Access Act request allowed Robinson to identify the organization that received the 498 ballot envelopes in September 2025.

In late September 2026, he statedthat the recipient was the Center for Civic Design, which he described as “a Soros-funded NGO.”

Bellows responded to the Feb. 13 records request 228 days after it was submitted. Robinson reported that the Center for Civic Design received Maine election materials before the 2025 election and was funded by George Soros and Arabella Advisers.

Robinson described the Center for Civic Design as an election design nonprofit with longstanding connections to Maine’s election administration. He also said that the organization had direct ties to Bellows and organizations aligned with Democrats.

The missing package was one of 62 boxes shipped in early September 2025 by Adam Graphic Corp. in North Attleboro, Massachusetts. Robinson learned that Maine’s elections office received 61 of those boxes.

The remaining box was reported missing on September 11, one day after it was shipped. Its location apparently remained unknown until October 3, 2025, when an employee of the Center for Civic Design emailed the elections bureau, according to Robinson.

Questions remain about how the box came to bear the Center for Civic Design’s address and a return address for UPS Overgoods in Chelmsford, Massachusetts. Adam Graphic Corp. said the Center for Civic Design was not one of its clients.

UPS offered a brief explanation for the separate shipment of 250 ballots to the Newburgh woman. A company spokesperson said, “This was due to an unintentional error on the part of our package handlers.”

Robinson said the delayed response from state officials and the Maryland case being marked closed “only deepens the mystery” surrounding the envelopes.

The unanswered questions include how the box was addressed to the nonprofit and why the investigation ended without a public announcement.

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