As hoax bomb threats in most of the battleground states triggered disruption in polling course of, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) stated that a number of of those threats appeared to originate from a Russian supply.
Because the voting course of to determine the destiny of the US was underway, 5 battleground states — Georgia, Michigan, Arizona, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania — acquired bomb threats, forcing evacuations from the places. These threats, later turned out to be hoaxed.
“Not one of the threats have been decided to be credible to this point,” the FBI stated in a press release, including that the federal company’s high precedence was to keep up the election integrity.
A minimum of two polling stations in Georgia needed to be briefly evacuated because of the hoax bomb threats. These two websites in Fulton County re-opened round half-hour later, officers stated. The county additionally sought a court docket order to increase the voting hours of those locations.
Brad Raffensperger, a Republican and a Georgia’s secretary of state, blamed Russian interference for the D-Day bomb hoaxes within the US.
“They’re as much as mischief, it appears. They do not need us to have a easy, truthful and correct election, and if they will get us to battle amongst ourselves, they will rely that as a victory,” Raffensperger advised reporters.
Russian embassy responds
In the meantime, the Russian embassy in Washington termed these insinuations of any such interference as “malicious slander”.
In a press release, the embassy stated, “We wish to emphasize that Russia has not interfered and doesn’t intrude within the inner affairs of different nations, together with the US. As President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly harassed, we respect the desire of the American individuals.”
The top of the Wisconsin Elections Fee, Ann Jacobs, stated that the state of Madison additionally acquired faux threats at two polling stations, however there was no disruption within the voting course of.
There have been bomb threats at a number of places, however none have been credible, stated a spokesperson for Jocelyn Benson, Michigan’s Democratic secretary of state.
The spokesperson additionally famous that Benson’s workplace had been notified that the threats could also be tied to Russia.
Georgia acquired over two dozen threats, most of which have been in Fulton County, which additionally contains majority of Atlanta, a stronghold for Democrats, an FBI official stated.
Officers search voting hours extension
The police in one other Democratic stronghold, DeKalb County in Georgia, responded to bomb threats at eight places and 6 of those websites have been polling stations which needed to be evacuated. County officers sought an emergency order to increase the opening instances at these voting websites.
Later, the DeKalb County coverage stated no bombs have been discovered on the six polling websites.
In the meantime, Reuters cited a senior official from Raffensperger’s workplace and stated that the Georgia bomb hoaxes have been despatched from e mail addresses that had been utilized by Russians to intrude within the earlier US elections.
The official stated that threats have been despatched to the US media and polling stations, “it is a probability it is Russia”.
The chief election official of the swing state of Arizona and a Democrat — Arizona secretary of state Adrian Fontes — stated 4 hoax bomb threats had been acquired in polling websites in Navajo County, which is positioned within the northeastern a part of the state and contains three Native American tribes. “Vladimir Putin is being a prick,” Fontes advised Reuters.
Amid the shut contest between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris, opinion polls additionally steered that it is too shut of a neck-and-neck battle.
In the meantime, a choose in Clearfield County in Pennsylvania allowed for extension of voting hours to 9:00 pm (native time) after a bomb risk disrupted vote-counting course of at one of many designated websites.
Pennsylvania’s Democrat governor Josh Shapiro stated on Tuesday night time that a number of bomb threats had been investigated and none of them have been discovered to be credible. Nevertheless, Shapiro didn’t make any mentions of Russian interference.
Russian ‘interference’: Not the primary time
These hoax bomb threats come as the newest within the collection of examples of alleged Russian interference within the 2024 US elections.
US intelligence officers had on November 1 warned that Russian actors doctored a video, falsely depicting Haitians illegally casting ballots in Georgia. The officers had additionally discovered that the Russians created a separate faux video, accusing somebody related to the Harris presidential ticket of taking a bribe from an entertainer.
Moreover, US intelligence officers have additionally accused Russia of interfering in earlier US presidential elections, particularly the 2016 race to the White Home which Trump gained towards Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
(With company inputs)
