Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows Claims Credible Threat Made Against Her Life on Social Media

On Saturday at the League of Women Voters of Maine (LWV) Biennial Convention entitled “Democracy Forum,” Maine’s Secretary of State Shenna Bellows claimed that she had recently received a credible threat against her life.

“So last Friday, I was headed to Monhegan with my husband and a social media you know, thing, popped up on my phone. Somebody said, ‘enjoy your Memorial Day. It’s gonna be your last’,” Bellows said Saturday.

Bellows said that she has “15 detectives who work for [her] in the Division of law enforcement under the Secretary of State.”

“They are associated with the bureau of motor or vehicles, but they do a lot of other work for me too,” she said.

“So I can send it to my the head of my Enforcement Division and say, is this someone I should be worried about? And they did an investigation and they reported back to me yesterday. Yeah, somebody I probably should be worried about,” Bellows said.

A Memorial Day Facebook post from the Maine State Archives, a bureau within the Department of Secretary of State, appears to show three hidden comments, which may be the social media post Bellows was referring to.

Bellows went on to claim that similar death threats targeting local town clerks happen every day.

“But I have resources. Imagine if you’re a local clerk, imagine if you’re that individual’s clerk,” Bellows said.

“And imagine if he’s posting this on our Facebook page directed toward me. There’s a chance he’s posting it on other people’s Facebook pages like his local clerk,” she said. “So just be mindful that these threats are happening every day.”

The topic of LWV’s 2023 Biennial Convention was to discuss threats to democracy, and Bellows used this story to give an example of actions that undermine the democratic election process.

The Maine Wire has contacted the Office of the Attorney General and the Secretary of State’s Office to obtain more information about the threat against Bellows’ life and the investigation.