By Ted Cohen
A Vermont college grad is under the gun in Maine for an unfolding election-ballot scandal.
Middlebury College grad Shenna Bellows is the elections chief in Maine.
As secretary of state, Bellows oversees all elections in the Pine Tree State.
Bellows announced Monday that she is doing her best to investigate how 250 election ballots ended up in an Amazon box at a Newburgh, Maine resident’s home.
“I cannot discuss the details of the law enforcement investigation,” Bellows told a news conference Monday.
But she tried to assure Maine voters that her office is doing everything it can to figure out how election ballots got delivered to an online shopper’s house in an Amazon box.
Maine allows no-excuse absentee voting, which began Monday for the current election, which includes two state-ballot initiatives – one of which would actually reduce the availability of absentee voting.
The system doubles as the state’s form of early voting. Voters can fill out an absentee ballot in person at their municipal office or they can mail them in.
Voters who want to cast an absentee ballot by mail or in person can request a ballot using the state’s online form or making a request at their municipal office.
Bellows has a bachelor of arts degree from Middlebury College.
Bellows served in the Maine Senate from 2016 to 2020, representing the 14th district.
She was the Maine Democratic Party nominee in the 2014 United States Senate election in Maine, losing to incumbent Republican Susan Collins.
As secretary of state, Bellows gained national attention in December 2023 when she ruled that Donald Trump was ineligible for Maine’s Republican primary ballot due to his role in the January 6 United States Capitol attack, a decision later overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.
In March 2025, she announced her candidacy for Governor of Maine in the 2026 Maine gubernatorial election.