Atlanta-area polling precincts received several bomb threats on Election Day that the government officials say appear to be the work of Russian operatives looking to disrupt the presidential election.
Fulton County polling precincts received at least 32 total bomb threats via email and phone call on Tuesday, according to Fulton County Police Chief W. Wade Yates, who said those threats resulted in the temporary closure of at least five county polling locations throughout the day.
The FBI said in a statement that threats have been reported in other states and many “appear to originate from Russian email domains.”
Fulton County election officials said they extended operating hours at the precincts that were closed to give affected voters more time to cast their ballots.
“We were able to clear 27 of them very quickly without the need for an evacuation,” Yates told reporters Tuesday evening during a press conference inside the Fulton County Elections Hub & Operation Center in Fairburn, Georgia.
Additional bomb threats were reported at polling precincts in DeKalb and Gwinnett counties, according to Georgia NAACP President Gerald Griggs, who said the perpetrators appeared to be targeting precincts in majority-Black areas, but that Black voters “would not be deterred.”
“They have the strength of their ancestors,” Griggs said. “Any time you have to go through [32] bomb threats and you still vote, that speaks a lot.”
Fulton County Commissioner Marvin Arrington Jr. said the bomb threats appear to be a “concerted, organized effort” to dissuade locals from voting.
“We’re doing everything we can to make sure that everyone stays safe and that everyone gets an opportunity to vote,” Arrington said in a Tuesday afternoon Instagram post. “Stay vigilant. Do not be discouraged. Do not be intimidated.”
Earlier during the day, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said the bomb threats didn’t have a major impact on election operations.
“Out-of-state actors that don’t have our best outcomes at heart, they want to see us mess with each other and not get along with each other,” Raffensperger said. “At the end of the day, we’re the United States of America. Never lose sight of that.”
Election officials stressed that the bomb threats were unfounded and didn’t appear to have a major impact on voting throughout the day.
In Fulton County, an estimated 92,700 people voted in-person on Election Day as of 6 p.m. Tuesday, according to Fulton County Elections Director Nadine Williams.
Williams said as of Monday, a combined total of at least 417,000 people voted early in-person and via absentee ballot in Fulton County, setting a new all-time record for the county.
Griggs seconded statements from state and local election officials that Election Day ran smoothly for the most part. He said the Georgia NAACP only received about 15 calls from Black folks across the state who were unaware their polling precinct had been changed, likely due to the Republican-led state legislature redrawing Georgia’s political maps in December.
Voters in Camilla, Georgia, a majority-Black town located about 26 miles south of Albany, also reported being confused about the city canceling its special election on Tuesday after the local election superintendent announced his resignation.
Griggs said some residents weren’t sure if they’d be able to vote in the race for president or other federal elections as a result until local leaders clarified the issue.
“Except for the attempted Russian interference, it was pretty smooth,” Griggs said of Georgia Election Day operations. “Wait times were down all around the state.”
This story will be updated.
