Supply: Megan Varner / Getty
Officers in Georgia and Arizona prolonged Election Day hours at Black and Indigenous polling locations on account of a number of hoax bomb threats referred to as in, with some linked to Russian interference.
The presidential election race between Democratic nominee Kamala Harris and Republican nominee Donald Trump on Tuesday (November 5) turned extra critical as a number of polling websites in Georgia, Arizona, and different states have been beset by bomb threats, inflicting them to briefly shut down. Federal and native officers have said that they’ve credible data that the threats have been a part of election interference operations from Russia to create voter suppression. “The FBI is conscious of bomb threats to polling places in a number of states, lots of which seem to originate from Russian electronic mail domains,” the company stated in a press release launched to the press. “Not one of the threats have been decided to be credible to date.” Different states reporting comparable bomb threats embrace Pennsylvania,
Three polling places in main blue areas of Fulton, Cobb, and Gwinnett counties are going to remain open later due to bomb threats originating from Russia.
MAGA clowns have been celebrating the disruption till they came upon people will now be capable of vote even later. #gapol pic.twitter.com/T2QHFPC8iP
— Blue Georgia (@BlueATLGeorgia) November 5, 2024
“We recognized the supply, and it was from Russia,” stated Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. “They’re as much as mischief, it appears, and so they don’t need us to have a easy, honest, and correct election. Something that may get us to battle amongst ourselves – they will depend that as a victory.” There have been a couple of dozen threats to polling websites alone in Georgia, predominately in majority-Black and Democratic-leaning areas within the higher Atlanta space. In DeKalb County, seven places acquired threats in a single hour together with church buildings.
Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes additionally blamed Russia for a number of bomb threats that have been referred to as in at polling stations in Navajo Nation communities. “We even have purpose to consider, though I gained’t get into specifics, that this comes from certainly one of our overseas enemies, specifically Russia,” he stated to reporters in a information convention. Fontes additionally claimed that the threats got here from a “.ru” electronic mail tackle, however whether or not or not it was a spoof is but to be decided. He did say that federal and state officers are persevering with to research.
Georgia prolonged their polling hours to shut at 7:45 P.M., and Arizona said the difficulty wouldn’t have an effect on their polling. Federal officers have famous that it is smart for Russia to inflict chaos throughout this time and warn it might improve over the following two months. “If chaos is the purpose, probably the most opportune window to create mischief is the post-November fifth pre-certification interval,” stated former Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Safety Company director Chris Krebs.
BREAKING – Over 40 totally different faux bomb threats have now been referred to as into Democratic-leaning polling locations
They usually’re coming from RUSSIA
This could actually be THE story proper now — it’s blatant and brazen election interference to steal the election for Trump
— Tristan Snell (@TristanSnell) November 6, 2024
