Hoax bomb threats, lots of which appeared to originate from Russian electronic mail domains, have been directed at polling areas in three U.S. battleground states — Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin — as election day voting was underway, the FBI mentioned on Tuesday.
“Not one of the threats have been decided to be credible to this point,” the FBI mentioned in an announcement, including that election integrity was among the many bureau’s highest priorities.
No less than two polling websites focused by the faux bomb threats in Georgia have been briefly evacuated on Tuesday.
These two areas in Fulton County each reopened after about half-hour, officers mentioned, and the county is in search of a courtroom order to increase the placement’s voting hours previous the statewide deadline of seven p.m. native time.
Georgia’s Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, blamed Russian interference for the election day bomb hoaxes.
“They’re as much as mischief, it appears. They do not need us to have a easy, honest and correct election, and if they will get us to combat amongst ourselves, they will depend that as a victory,” Raffensperger instructed reporters.
The Russian Embassy in Washington didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
No less than 4 faux threats in Arizona county
Reuters couldn’t instantly decide what number of hoax bomb threats have been obtained in Michigan and Wisconsin.
Adrian Fontes, a Democrat and Arizona’s Secretary of State, the chief election official within the swing state, mentioned 4 faux bomb threats had been delivered to polling websites within the state’s Navajo County.
Ann Jacobs, head of the Wisconsin Elections Fee, mentioned faux bomb threats have been despatched to 2 polling areas within the state capital of Madison, however they didn’t disrupt voting. Jacobs didn’t know if the threats have been linked to Russia.
An FBI official mentioned Georgia alone obtained greater than two dozen, most of which occurred in Fulton County, which encompasses a lot of Atlanta, a Democratic stronghold.
A senior official in Raffensperger’s workplace, talking on the situation of anonymity to talk freely, mentioned the Georgia bomb hoaxes have been despatched from electronic mail addresses that had been utilized by Russians making an attempt to intervene in earlier U.S. elections.
The threats have been despatched to U.S. media and the 2 polling areas, the official mentioned, including, “It is a chance it is Russia.”
U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, and Republican candidate Donald Trump, a former U.S. president, are locked in a decent race for the White Home. Opinion polls recommend the competition is just too near name.
The phoney bomb threats mark the newest in a string of examples of alleged interference by the Russians within the 2024 election.
On Nov. 1, U.S. intelligence officers warned that Russian actors manufactured a video that falsely depicted Haitians illegally casting ballots in Georgia. Intelligence officers additionally discovered that the Russians created a separate phoney video that falsely accused somebody related to the Harris presidential ticket of taking a bribe from an entertainer.
U.S. intelligence officers have additionally accused Russia of interfering in earlier presidential elections, particularly the 2016 race that Trump gained towards Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
