The Blubber

The FBI reported that fake bomb threats, many appearing to come from Russian email domains, targeted polling locations across multiple U.S. states on Tuesday. "None of the threats have been determined to be credible so far," the FBI stated, underscoring that election security remains a top priority.

Two polling sites in Georgia, a key battleground state, were evacuated briefly due to these bomb hoaxes but reopened after about 30 minutes. Fulton County officials are now seeking a court order to extend voting hours at these locations beyond the statewide 7 p.m. deadline.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger attributed the threats to Russian interference, saying, "They don’t want us to have a smooth, fair, and accurate election, and if they can get us to fight among ourselves, they’ll count that as a victory." The Russian embassy in Washington has not commented.

The FBI did not specify all states impacted, but one official indicated Georgia received over two dozen threats, most occurring in Fulton County. A senior official in Raffensperger's office, speaking anonymously, noted the bomb threats came from emails previously associated with Russian election interference.

This series of hoaxes marks the latest in a suspected pattern of Russian interference in the 2024 election, with Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and former Republican President Donald Trump in a tight race. On Nov. 1, U.S. intelligence agencies reported that Russian actors had fabricated videos: one falsely depicting Haitians voting illegally in Georgia and another falsely accusing an associate of the Harris campaign of accepting a bribe. U.S. intelligence has also accused Russia of interfering in past elections, including the 2016 race where Trump defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton.