Moscow has referred to as “malicious slander” studies that pretend bomb threats aimed toward polling locations in 4 battleground states within the US elections (Georgia, Michigan, Arizona and Wisconsin) originated from Russian e mail domains and had been a part of an interference operation.
A number of voting facilities affected by the fears in Georgia had been briefly evacuated on Tuesday.
“To date, not one of the threats have been thought-about credible,” the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) mentioned in an announcement, noting that most of the false bomb warnings “seem to return from Russian e mail domains.”
An FBI official mentioned Georgia acquired greater than two dozen threats, most of which occurred in Fulton County, which encompasses a lot of Atlanta, a stronghold of the Democratic Occasion.
The threats prompted the evacuation of two voting facilities in Fulton County, Georgia. Each places reopened after about half-hour, officers mentioned, and the county was looking for a court docket order to increase the situation’s voting hours past the statewide closing deadline of seven p.m. GMT).
The FBI is conscious of bomb threats to polling locations in a number of states, lots of which seem to return from Russian e mail domains. To date not one of the threats have been decided to be credible. https://t.co/j3YfajVK1m
-FBI (@FBI) November 5, 2024
About an hour earlier than polls closed, officers in DeKalb County, Georgia, mentioned that they had acquired bomb threats towards 5 polling locations.
Officers within the overwhelmingly Democratic suburb mentioned voting had been suspended on the places till police confirmed there have been no bombs. A court docket order could be sought to increase voting, which is routine in Georgia when a polling place is disrupted, officers mentioned.
Bomb threats had been additionally despatched to 2 polling locations in Madison, Wisconsin’s state capital, however they didn’t disrupt voting, mentioned Wisconsin Elections Fee head Ann Jacobs.
A spokesman for Jocelyn Benson, Michigan’s Democratic secretary of state, mentioned there had been studies of bomb threats at a number of polling locations, however none had been credible. Benson’s workplace was notified that the threats could possibly be associated to Russia, the spokesperson mentioned.
Adrian Fontes, a Democrat and Arizona Secretary of State, the highest elections official within the swing state, mentioned 4 hoax bomb threats had additionally been despatched to voting facilities in Navajo County, Arizona.
Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger positioned the blame squarely on Russia.
“It looks like they’re as much as mischief. “They do not need us to have a easy, truthful, correct election, and if they’ll get us to combat amongst ourselves, they’ll rely it as a victory,” Raffensperger instructed reporters.
The Russian Embassy in Washington, DC mentioned that insinuations about Russian interference within the election had been “malicious slander.”
“We wish to emphasize that Russia has not and doesn’t intervene within the inside affairs of different international locations, together with america. “As President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly pressured, we respect the desire of the American individuals,” the embassy mentioned.
US intelligence officers have accused Russia of interfering in earlier US presidential elections, particularly by means of cyber operations within the 2016 race that incumbent Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump gained towards Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
The US later indicted 12 Russian navy intelligence officers for his or her alleged position in interfering within the 2016 election.
A senior US cyber official mentioned her company had not seen any important incidents this Election Day.
Cait Conley of the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Safety Company instructed reporters there was little proof of a major disruption to election infrastructure.
“At the moment, we’re not monitoring any nationally important incidents that impression the safety of our election infrastructure,” mentioned Conley, whose company is liable for defending essential American infrastructure, together with election infrastructure.
