US Election: Voting Commences Smoothly Despite Bomb Threat

The voting process has been going smoothly, even with issues caused by non-credible bomb threats from Russia that disrupted voting in several states, officials said.

Some counties in battleground states have started processing mail-in ballots amid high turnout, with officials predicting results will be ready later in the night or Wednesday. But in other locations, polls will stay open later because of the disruptions during the day.

Several bomb threats at a few Michigan and Georgia polling places caused delays in the vote as security officials cleared the locations.

The threats “appear to originate from Russian email domains,” the FBI said midday Tuesday. “None of the threats have been determined to be credible thus far.”

Wisconsin also received threats apparently aimed at disrupting voting, a US official said. In addition, there were “unsubstantiated” bomb threats made to four locations in Navajo County, Arizona, and state officials have “reason to believe” that the threats originated in Russia, Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes said Tuesday afternoon.

Multiple bomb threats have also been made to polling locations and municipal buildings across Pennsylvania in the evening, but so far there is no credible threat to the public, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said on Tuesday night. Pennsylvania state officials are investigating with the FBI.

Voting Integrity

The majority of voters are at least somewhat confident that this election will be well run, regardless of which candidate they support, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey.

“Here in Georgia, it is easy to vote and hard to cheat,” Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said Monday. “Our systems are secure and our people are ready.”

Benson in Michigan warned voters to be cautious of “foreign bad actors” that will try to distract from the secure elections process.

“Don’t fall for it,” Benson said at a news conference Tuesday. “We know that they will use all sorts of misinformation and other tactics today and in the days ahead to create chaos, confusion, fear, division and sow seeds of doubt about what is a very clear, transparent and secure election process.”

The 2024 election has already featured allegations from Trump and other Republicans that the vote is “rigged.” Trump has made repeated false claims that Democrats are cheating in the election, and he’s twisted isolated problems with voting in an effort to prime his supporters to believe the election is not legitimate if he loses.

CNN/Ejiofor Ezeifeoma