(Added: WSB photo, drop box this afternoon)

ORIGINAL MONDAY REPORT: Thanks for the tip. SFD and SPD were at the West Seattle Junction ballot drop box for a while before 9 o’clock this morning; we asked King County Elections what happened, and here’s the summary from spokesperson Halei Watkins:

This morning was the first of the drop box pickups for this February Special Election and one of our driver teams found a small bag of white powder in the drop box at Alaska Junction in West Seattle. It was spotted when they removed the large blue collection bin, as it was lying on the floor under the slot opening. The driver team didn’t touch it and immediately called their supervisor and law enforcement was alerted. Both police and fire went right out to collect it and speak with our drivers. Our understanding is that the next step is testing and we hope to learn more about what it was exactly.

Our driver team stayed with the box until law enforcement was completely done with documenting what they needed, and then our team relocked and sealed it so it’s ready for voters once again. The bag with the powder was separate from the ballots so those were transported back to Elections HQ (after given the all-clear from law enforcement) for processing.

Again, the ballots in the box were unharmed, and the ballot box remains in service. (Same box had a contamination incident back in 2020.)

TUESDAY UPDATE: Watkins tells WSB, “The white powder in question was determined by law enforcement to likely be crushed-up Tylenol. We’re so glad that it wasn’t anything harmful or dangerous and, as always, really glad that our team said something when they saw something.”