The FBI says bomb threats made in several states have been deemed non-credible and that they came from Russian email domains.
The FBI did not identify the states in question, but Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said earlier Tuesday that the state’s election process had snuffed out some bomb threats that he said came from Russia.
Officials in Fulton County, Ga., said they received “multiple calls” and the threats forced a brief closure of two polling places.
“I just want to let me make sure everyone understands this, that Georgia is not going to be intimidated. Russia has just decided they picked on the wrong Georgia,” Raffensperger said. “They need to pick on the other one in the Black Sea, because we’re not going to be intimidated.”
The bomb threats were among multiple disturbances that U.S. officials are tracking.
But Cait Conley, a senior advisor to the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, told reporters on a call Tuesday there were no national-level security incidents that were threatening to disrupt the election on a wide scale.
Officials continue to warn of what they say is an unprecedented level of foreign influence and disinformation that they expect will persist long past when votes are cast.
Last week, U.S. intelligence officials announced that a video purporting to depict voter fraud in Georgia is fake and the work of “Russian influence actors.”
The announcement Friday that the video was fake represented an effort by the FBI and other federal agencies to combat foreign disinformation by calling it out rather than letting it spread for days unchecked. It follows a similar statement the week before that also attributed to Russian actors a widely circulated video falsely depicting mail-in ballots for Donald Trump being destroyed in Pennsylvania.
On Tuesday, the FBI said in a news release that a fabricated video using its name and insignia falsely stated that Americans should “‘vote remotely’ due to a high terror threat at polling locations.” Another false video alleged that the management of prisons in several swing states, including Arizona, Pennsylvania and Georgia, “rigged inmate voting and colluded with a political party,” according to the FBI.
Both videos are misinformation, and people seeking information about the election or their polling location should turn to their local election office, the FBI said.
“The FBI is working closely with state and local law enforcement partners to respond to election threats and protect our communities as Americans exercise their right to vote,” the FBI statement says. “Attempts to deceive the public with false content about FBI threat assessments and activities aim to undermine our democratic process and erode trust in the electoral system.”
The FBI said foreign adversaries, particularly Russia, are attempting to “undermine public confidence in the integrity of U.S. elections and stoke divisions among Americans.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
