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Russian-linked hoax bomb threats cause disruption at polling sites, says FBI; Moscow responds
The Russian embassy in Washington termed these insinuations of any such interference as "malicious slander".
As hoax bomb threats in many of the battleground states caused disruption in polling process, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said that several of these threats appeared to originate from a Russian source.
As the voting process to decide the fate of the United States was underway, five battleground states -- Georgia, Michigan, Arizona, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania -- received bomb threats, forcing evacuations from the locations. These threats, later turned out to be hoaxed.
"None of the threats have been determined to be credible thus far," the FBI said in a statement, adding that the federal agency's top priority was to maintain the election integrity.
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At least two polling stations in Georgia had to be briefly evacuated due to the hoax bomb threats. These two sites in Fulton County re-opened around 30 minutes later, officials said. The county also sought a court order to extend the voting hours of these places.
Brad Raffensperger, a Republican and a Georgia's secretary of state, blamed Russian interference for the D-Day bomb hoaxes in the US.
"They're up to mischief, it seems. They don't want us to have a smooth, fair and accurate election, and if they can get us to fight among ourselves, they can count that as a victory," Raffensperger told reporters.
Russian embassy responds
Meanwhile, the Russian embassy in Washington termed these insinuations of any such interference as "malicious slander".
In a statement, the embassy said, "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. As President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly stressed, we respect the will of the American people."
The head of the Wisconsin Elections Commission, Ann Jacobs, said that the state of Madison also received fake threats at two polling stations, but there was no disruption in the voting process.
There were bomb threats at several locations, but none were credible, said a spokesperson for Jocelyn Benson, Michigan's Democratic secretary of state.
The spokesperson also noted that Benson's office had been notified that the threats may be tied to Russia.
Georgia received over two dozen threats, most of which were in Fulton County, which also includes majority of Atlanta, a stronghold for Democrats, an FBI official said.
Officials seek voting hours extension
The police in another Democratic stronghold, DeKalb County in Georgia, responded to bomb threats at eight locations and six of these sites were polling stations which had to be evacuated. County officials sought an emergency order to extend the opening times at these voting sites.
Later, the DeKalb County policy said no bombs were found at the six polling sites.
Meanwhile, Reuters cited a senior official from Raffensperger's office and said that the Georgia bomb hoaxes were sent from email addresses that had been used by Russians to interfere in the previous US elections.
The official said that threats were sent to the US media and polling stations, "it's a likelihood it's Russia".
The chief election official of the swing state of Arizona and a Democrat -- Arizona secretary of state Adrian Fontes -- said four hoax bomb threats had been received in polling sites in Navajo County, which is located in the northeastern part of the state and includes three Native American tribes. "Vladimir Putin is being a prick," Fontes told Reuters.
Amid the close contest between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris, opinion polls also suggested that it's too close of a neck-and-neck fight.
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Meanwhile, a judge in Clearfield County in Pennsylvania allowed for extension of voting hours to 9:00 pm (local time) after a bomb threat disrupted vote-counting process at one of the designated sites.
Pennsylvania's Democrat governor Josh Shapiro said on Tuesday night that multiple bomb threats had been investigated and none of them were found to be credible. However, Shapiro did not make any mentions of Russian interference.
Russian ‘interference’: Not the first time
These hoax bomb threats come as the latest in the series of examples of alleged Russian interference in the 2024 US elections.
US intelligence officials had on November 1 warned that Russian actors doctored a video, falsely depicting Haitians illegally casting ballots in Georgia. The officials had also found that the Russians created a separate fake video, accusing someone associated with the Harris presidential ticket of taking a bribe from an entertainer.
Additionally, US intelligence officials have also accused Russia of interfering in previous US presidential elections, especially the 2016 race to the White House which Trump won against Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
(With agency inputs)
