Hazmat Response to Suspicious Envelope At Election Commission

Milwaukee Fire Chief Aaron Lipski and city Election Commission Executive Director Paulina Gutiérrez. Photo taken Nov. 8, 2024 by Graham Kilmer.

An envelope containing a suspicious, unidentified liquid was received Friday by the Milwaukee Election Commission at its City Hall office.

The Milwaukee Fire Department and a hazmat team responded and tested the liquid, ruling out any hazardous materials. However, the liquid itself has not yet been identified, according to Fire Chief Aaron Lipski.

“We have a pretty intense testing process,” Lipski said. “We can find nothing that is dangerous or hazardous at this time.”

The election commission has not received any threats related to the election, so far, said Executive Director Paulina Gutiérrez. The office has been training all year in preparation for potential threats or attacks in the wake of the election.

“So we have been monitoring carefully since the beginning of the election season, any type of mail that might look suspicious,” Gutiérrez said.

The fire department has also been preparing for potential threats related to the election. The hazmat team has a whole suite of field testing capabilities to look for drugs, explosives, toxins or biologic substances, Lipski said.

“A lot of this stuff was really developed for this election, just out of an abundance of caution,” the chief said.

The envelope and its contents will be brought to the state crime lab for further testing.

The envelope arrived at the City Hall mail room early Friday and was routed to the commission. A commission staffer opened it because there was nothing suspicious, on its face, about the envelope, Gutiérrez said. The inside of the envelope was bubble wrapped and containing the liquid as well as some sort of application.

The staffer that opened the envelope did come in contact with the liquid, but they are fine and did not seek any additional resources or medical attention from first responders, Lipski said.

“There was one individual who was in direct contact with this,” Lipski said. “That individual reported having no impact from any of this, was evaluated, declined further resources or transit to a hospital.”

The substance was cleared by field testing and City Hall returned to normal function. The election commission has also reopened and staff are available to cure provisional ballots until 4 p.m. today, which is the deadline to do so, Gutiérrez said, “We are still running at full speed here.”

However, the commission has rescheduled certification of the 2024 election following the disruption this morning. Originally, certification was scheduled for 4:45 p.m., but it has been moved to Monday at 8 a.m. The city certifies its results before forwarding them to the county.