Russian bomb threats were 'outrageous' but election was secure: US official
WASHINGTON – False bomb threats believed to emanate from Russia interrupted voting across at least five battleground states, but the top U.S. cybersecurity official said Wednesday they didn’t have a material impact on the outcome of the election or voters’ ability to cast ballots.
Jen Easterly, the director of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said in a midnight press briefing that Tuesday's election did see some "minor" disruptive activities, especially the bomb threats called in to polling stations and other locations that forced some evacuations and delays.
“These threats have, in some cases, delayed voting and thus delayed counting,” Easterly said. She described the threats as “one of many disruptions … within an incredibly complex event that involves hundreds of thousands of election workers and tens of thousands of polling places."
Voting precincts in Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Arizona were targeted with emailed threats, which the FBI said likely originated in Russia.
The threats were almost instantaneously deemed fake, but caused evacuations and delayed at least some voters from casting ballots in largely Democratic-leaning areas.
Easterly said CISA, part of the Department of Homeland Security, saw no evidence of the malicious activity “impacting the security or integrity of election infrastructure."
In a Wednesday morning statement, the former National Security Agency official doubled down on that assessment.
“As we have said repeatedly, our election infrastructure has never been more secure and the election community never better prepared to deliver safe, secure, free, and fair elections for the American people,” Easterly said. “This is what we saw yesterday in the peaceful and secure exercise of democracy.”
Easterly called the bomb threats an “outrageous” attack on the electoral system.
Both Easterly and her top elections deputy, Cait Conley, praised officials across local, state and federal government, saying they had tirelessly prepared for such scenarios and were able to deliver a safe and secure election.
“Ultimately they were able to demonstrate extensive resilience based on their preparations for it,” Easterly said. “Overall, I would call this a good news story for democracy.”
Part of the playbooks Russia and other adversaries have ‘practiced for decades’
Chris Krebs, who Trump famously fired via Twitter as Easterly’s predecessor after he publicly stated that the 2020 election was fair and secure, weighed in Wednesday with similar thoughts.
“Just my humble opinion, but based on available information the 2024 cycle has been a safe and secure election,” Krebs said on X.
“Sure, there were Iranian, Chinese, and Russian attempts to influence and interfere, but that's baked in by now” given past efforts by those three U.S. adversaries, said Krebs.
Krebs noted that bomb threats and swatting – or fake emergencies prompting a police response − are by now common occurrences for election officials. As such, he said, elections officials “ran the playbooks they've practiced for decades."
‘Up to mischief’ in Georgia and elsewhere
The bomb threats wreaked havoc at dozens of polling sites across five swing states. Some officials said they were forced to evacuate at least some polling places and extend hours to allow for voting and the counting of some ballots.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, said more than 30 precincts in the state, mostly consolidated in the Atlanta metro area, received threats. He was the first elections official to publicly attribute the bomb threats to Russia, which U.S. officials say used online misinformation and fake videos to favor President-elect Donald Trump and smear his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris.
The Kremlin was “up to mischief it seems," Raffensperger said at a Tuesday news conference. "They don’t want us to have a smooth, fair and accurate election.”
On Wednesday morning, however, Raffensperger also described the election as “free, fair, and accessible to every eligible Georgian.”
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said similar bomb threats in The Keystone State were fake, posed no threat to the public and did not impact voting.
Concerns about 'disenfranchising voters' in Georgia
In Georgia, where many of the initial bomb threats were called in, there were relatively short lines and few major problems at the polls. Representatives of the voter assistance group Election Protection said voters were confused and afraid over bomb threats in Democratic-leaning DeKalb, Fulton and Gwinnett Counties.
“So that's a concern about the effect of those bomb threats in terms of disenfranchising voters,’’ said Harold Franklin, chair of Georgia Election Protection.
“It's normal to have instances in which machines malfunction or maybe are offline, etc. Those are not unusual, especially early in the day,’’ said Franklin. “But certainly, I will say the bomb threats…that the level of those types of threats is unprecedented.”
Beyond the bomb threats, said Franklin, the Election Protection hotline received hundreds of calls from voters about concerns, including their registration not showing up or their registration being challenged.
“I think the combination of those threats, along with changes in Georgia law, has resulted in some unfortunate complications for some voters,’’ he said.
Robb Pitts, chairman of the Fulton County Board of Commissioners, said while nothing came of the bomb threats, officials had to temporarily close sites to investigate and to protect poll workers and voters.
“It’s disruptive,’’ said Potts, noting that officials had to ask a judge to extend the hours at affected sites.
“I'm glad none of them were credible," Tamieka Atkins, executive director of ProGeorgia, a nonpartisan coalition of civic engagement groups, said of the threats. "But it was sobering and people are going to carry that energy beyond yesterday."
“We haven't dealt with this at this level and in my generation,’’ she said.