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FBI investigating 'Russian' bomb threats to polling stations four across swing states
5 November 2024, 21:48 | Updated: 5 November 2024, 23:56
Polling stations across US battleground states Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Arizona, have received non-credible bomb threats from Russian email addresses, the FBI says.
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The American federal police announced around 4pm ET (9pm GMT) that they were "aware of bomb threats to polling locations in several states, many of which appear to originate from Russian email domains".
They added that "none of the threats have been determined to be credible thus far.
"We will continue to work closely with our state and local law enforcement partners to respond to any threats to our elections and to protect our communities as Americans exercise their right to vote".
The FBI concluded: "Election integrity is among the FBI’s highest priorities.
Later, Arizona confirmed that “unsubstantiated” bomb threats had been made to four locations in Navajo County.
Officials said they had “reason to believe” that the threats originated in Russia.
“We have no reason to believe that any of our voters or any of our polling places are in any sort of jeopardy", the Secretary of State.
Join Shelagh Fogarty, Jon Sopel, and our teams across the US for comprehensive election updates and analysis through the night on America Decides. Watch live on Global Player from 10pm on Tuesday.
Earlier on Election Day, Georgia's Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger confirmed that at least five of the bogus threats came from Russia.
He said: "We’ve heard some threats that were of Russian origin. In the interest of public safety, we always check that out, and we’ll just continue to be very responsible when we hear about stuff like that".