US election: Bomb threats disrupt polling in battleground states
US election: The bomb threats in parts of Arizona, Georgia and Pennsylvania turned out to be hoaxes but forced evacuations.
The battleground states in the United States received bomb threats on Tuesday amid the presidential election. The bomb threats in parts of Arizona, Georgia and Pennsylvania turned out to be hoaxes but forced evacuations. It also prolonged the voting process in some polling stations.
The threats were reported throughout the day at polling locations in three metro Atlanta counties, all with large numbers of Democratic voters, and into the evening at voting locations in Pennsylvania, forcing evacuations. Bomb threats also were reported at three voting locations in Navajo County, Arizona, according to the secretary of state’s office, reported AP.
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro admitted there had been multiple bomb threats during voting but none were found to be a credible threat to the masses.
"Every legal, eligible vote will be counted and counted accurately, and the will of the people in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania will be respected," said Shapiro, a Democrat.
In Georgia's Fulton County, which includes Atlanta, 32 of 177 polling places received bomb threats and five were briefly evacuated.
“Georgia’s not gonna be intimidated,” Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said Tuesday.
The FBI said on Tuesday afternoon that the bomb threats originated from Russian email domains.
Trump made unsubstantiated claims related to Philadelphia and Detroit and raised questions about election operations in Milwaukee.
Local officials quickly debunked the claims Trump made on his social media platform.
In Georgia, a federal judge rejected as “frivolous” a last-minute effort by Republicans to challenge Atlanta-area election offices’ collection of mail ballots last weekend — after early voting had ended. U.S. District Judge R. Stan Baker, a Trump appointee, said the GOP argument “does not withstand even the most basic level of statutory review and reading comprehension.”
Trump on Tuesday suggested he wouldn’t challenge the results of the election — as long as it’s fair.
“If it’s a fair election, I’d be the first one to acknowledge” the results, Trump said, though what meets that definition wasn’t clear.
As Election Day voting neared its end, the former president began making unsubstantiated claims about voting and law enforcement in the biggest cities in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
He said on his social media platform that there was “talk about massive cheating in Philadelphia” and said law enforcement was on the way. He did not provide details, and there was no immediate indication of what he was referring to. His spokespeople did not respond to requests for comment about what he meant.
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner issued a statement rejecting Trump’s claims as baseless.
“There is no factual basis whatsoever within law enforcement to support this wild allegation,” Krasner said. “If Donald J. Trump has any facts to support his wild allegations, we want them now. Right now. We are not holding our breath.”
With inputs from AP