Voting at multiple polling centers in Georgia has been temporarily suspended following reports of bomb threats on Election Day.
Some of the threats, which were received in two counties, were reportedly of “Russian origin” according to Georgia’s Secretary of StateBrad Raffensperger, who said investigations were ongoing but that the threats were not believed to be viable.
“We’ve heard some threats that were of Russian origin,” Raffensperger said during a press conference on Tuesday morning. “I don’t know how to describe that that’s viable, we don’t think they are, but in the interest of public safety, you always check that out.
“We’ll just continue to be very responsible when we hear about stuff like that. We’ve identified the source and it was from Russia.”
Two polling stations were evacuated in Union City and Fulton County due to the threats.
Later, authorities in DeKalb County said that five centers in Dekalb County were later closed “as a precautionary measure for the safety of voters and poll workers,” while bomb sweeps took place. The DeKalb County Law Department said it would seek an emergency order extending the voting times at the affected polling locations.
“Every asset that we have will be deployed to ensure that every citizen who wants to vote will be given that opportunity and every vote cast will be counted," DeKalb County CEO Michael Thurmond said.
In his press conference Raffensperger also referenced the distributed denial-of-service attack – also known as a DDoS attack – on Georgia’s state website last month. The attack targeted the page that allows voters to request absentee ballots.
“Just like we had the DDoS attack on Monday, October 14,” Raffensperger added. “42,000 pings denial of service from Russians. So we added that interface: ‘I am a human, not a robot.’”
Election officials in Cobb County, Georgia’s third-largest county, mailed more than 3,000 absentee ballots late, sending them out late last week. They must arrive in Georgia by the end of Election Day to be counted.
“We want to maintain voter trust by being transparent about the situation,” county Board of Elections Chairwoman Tori Silas said in a statement on Thursday. “We are taking every possible step to get these ballots to the voters who requested them."
Georgia is one of seven key swing states that will determine the outcome of the presidential election.
The latest New York Times/Siena College poll shows the two candidates are neck-and-neck in all swing states. Kamala Harris is just one point ahead of Donald Trump in the Peach State, which is well within the margin of error.
Trump currently faces charges of election interference in Fulton County, Georgia alongside his former attorney Rudy Giuliani and several others after falsely claiming the 2020 election was stolen. Trump had his infamous booking photo taken in Georgia, which has proven to be a massive fundraising machine for his campaign.
Giuliani was already found guilty of defaming two election workers in Georgia: Ruby Freeman and Wandrea “Shaye” Moss.
Election workers spent much of this year preparing for Election Day. In Cobb County, the Board of Commissioners even approved funding for panic buttons in August to ensure election workers can call for help if needed while monitoring the polls.
