Hoax bomb threats, many of which appear to have come from Russian email domains, were targeted at polling places in five US states — Georgia, Michigan, Arizona, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania — as they voted on Election Day, the FBI said Tuesday.
“There have been no credible threats to date,” the FBI said in a statement, adding that election integrity is one of the agency's top priorities.
At least two polling stations targeted by fake bomb threats in Georgia were temporarily evacuated.
The two precincts, in Fulton County, both reopened about 30 minutes later, officials said, and the county sought a court order to extend polling hours for the precinct past the state's 7 p.m. local time deadline.
Georgia's Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, blamed Russian interference for the election day bombings.
“It looks like they're going to do something bad. They don't want us to have an unfair, fair and accurate election, and if they can make us fight each other, they can count that as a victory,” Raffensperger told the media. .
Russia's ambassador to Washington said hints about Russian meddling were “brutal slander.”
“We would like to emphasize that Russia has not interfered and does not interfere in the internal affairs of other countries, including the United States,” the embassy statement said. “Like [Russian] President Vladimir Putin has emphasized many times, we respect the will of the American people. “
State officials confirm false threats
Ann Jacobs, head of the Wisconsin Elections Commission, said fake bomb threats were sent to two polling places in the state capital of Madison, but did not disrupt voting.
A spokesman for Jocelyn Benson, Michigan's Democratic secretary of state, told Reuters there had been reports of bomb threats at several polling places, but none were credible.
Benson's office has been notified that the threats may be related to Russia, the spokesman said.
An FBI official said Georgia alone received more than a dozen, most of which took place in Fulton County, which includes much of Atlanta, a Democratic stronghold.
Police in DeKalb County, Ga. – another stronghold of the Democratic Alliance – later responded to bomb threats at eight locations, according to a press release. Six of the locations were polling stations and were evacuated. County officials sought an emergency order extending the opening hours of polling places.
DeKalb County police later said no bombs were found at six polling places.
A senior official in Raffensperger's office, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Georgia bomb hoax was sent through email addresses used by Russians to interfere in the last US election.
The threats were sent to American media and polling stations, the official said, adding, “It could be Russia.”
Adrian Fontes, Arizona's secretary of state, a Democrat who is the state's top election official, said four bomb threats were delivered to polling places in Navajo County, which is in the northeast of the state and that involved three natives. tribes.
Vice President of the United States Kamala Harris, nominated by the Democratic Alliance, and Donald Trump, the former president of the United States, are locked in a tight race for the White House. Opinion polls suggest the contest is too close to call.
A judge in Clearfield County, Pa., extended voting hours until 9:00 pm local time after a bomb threat at a polling station disrupted the process.
Josh Shapiro, the Democratic governor of Pennsylvania, said Tuesday night that several bomb threats had been investigated and none had been found to be true. He did not mention Russia.
The hoax bomb threats mark the latest in a series of examples of Russian interference in the 2024 election.
On Nov. 1, US intelligence officials warned that Russian actors were making a fake video of Haitians casting illegal votes in Georgia. Intelligence officials also discovered that the Russians had created a secret video falsely accusing someone associated with the Harris presidential ticket of taking bribes from the singer.
US intelligence officials have also accused Russia of meddling in the 2016 presidential election, which Trump won over Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
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