Sat. Nov 23rd, 2024
alert-–-election-official:-4-arizona-locations-received-“unsubstantiated”-bomb-threats-believed-to-originate-in-russiaAlert – Election official: 4 Arizona locations received “unsubstantiated” bomb threats believed to originate in Russia

Arizona’s Secretary of State Adrian Fontes said the state is monitoring threats made, but he assured voters and poll workers they are unsubstantiated on Tuesday.

The bomb threats were made to four specific Arizona locations in Navajo County as millions of people are headed to the polls for Election Day.

‘These are unsubstantiated threats. We have no reason to believe that any of our voters or any of our polling places are in any sort of jeopardy,’ Fontes told reporters in a briefing.

He was briefed by his security team and state law enforcement is working with the feds.

Earlier in the day, Fontes said it is believed the threat came from overseas and specifically mentioned Russia. 

In a second briefing, he said the threats came from a ‘.ru’ email address indicating it could mean the threat came from Russia, but he said that had not been confirmed yet.

 ‘The motive appears to be to ensue chaos, not to impact any political outcome,’ he said in the second briefing.

No polling locations were closed due to the threat, he said.

Fontes said overall, Election Day is going very well across most of the state.

It comes as there have been threats in Georgia, Wisconsin and Michigan as well. 

‘The FBI is aware of bomb threats to polling locations in several states, many of which appear to originate from Russian email domains,’ the FBI said in a statement.

‘None of the threats have been determined to be credible thus far,’ the feds added.

The FBI called election integrity among its highest priorities. They are working closely with state officials and local law enforcement to respond to any threats to the elections. 

In Arizona, thousands of people have been lining up to cast their ballots throughout the day. 

Polls in the state are open until 7pm. 

The Secretary of State reminded voters earlier that if they are in line by 7pm, they will be able to vote in the election.

Apart from the bomb threats in Navajo County, there were some locations in Apache County which had issues with printers. Technical teams were assisting with getting those up and running, but most locations there were running without issues. 

In Maricopa County, which includes more than half the state’s population and is considered one of the biggest bellwethers in the country, operations were largely running on time. 

Some locations reported lines running about an hour long to cast a ballot there, but the average wait time Tuesday afternoon was just two minutes. 

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