The FBI Has a Suspect for the Election Day Bomb Threats: Russia

At least 30 bomb threats have been reported across the country — all non-credible — the vast majority of which have impacted Democratic-leaning counties.

At least 14 non-credible bomb threats have been confirmed in Georgia, centered on counties near Atlanta. Thus far, every threat has landed in a district that voted for President Joe Biden in 2020.

In Pennsylvania, a key swing state for this election, Gov. Josh Shapiro said that “multiple bomb threats” were called during the last hour for voters to get in line to vote.

“State and local law enforcement, along with the FBI, are investigating these threats, and thus far, there is no credible threat to the public,” Shapiro said of the threat.

The FBI confirmed that non-credible bomb threats were also reported in Wisconsin, according to Wisconsin Watch reporter Phoebe Petrovic. The FBI confirmed there were similar threats in Arizona and Michigan, Petrovic reported.

The FBI issued a statement Tuesday that “bomb threats to polling locations in several states” appeared to come from Russia. “None of the threats have been determined to be credible thus far,” the statement said.

A bomb threat temporarily disrupted voting in Stone Mountain, Georgia, Gwinnett County GOP Chair Sammy Baker confirmed to NOTUS — one of several threats against voters and poll workers that have been cleared across the state.

“In the interest of public safety, we always check that out,” Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger told reporters early Tuesday.

No arrests have been made, and officials have said there is currently no word on the origins of the threat. According to Raffensperger, the government has attributed at least two earlier bomb threats and a cyberattack to Russia.

“They’re up to mischief it seems,” Raffensperger said. “Anything they can get to fight amongst ourselves.”

Raffensperger said that those threats all came from emails.The state’s results monitoring operation has been set up in a more heavily guarded government facility over concerns that Georgia state election officials’ safety could be at risk. Officials asked reporters not to reveal the exact location publicly.

The threat in Stone Mountain happened in Gwinnett County — a suburban region that has become increasingly crucial to Democrats’ success in Georgia. Donald Trump’s campaign has been hoping to trim its losses in the county, which has largely been seen as a bellwether in the presidential race.

In Fulton County, five bomb threats were cleared as “non-credible,” but still prompted two poll locations to briefly close.

This election has been rife with threats of violence and concerns around poll workers and voter safety, especially as Trump and his allies escalate baseless claims of voter fraud and foreign states attempt to meddle in the democratic process. Intelligence officials have said that inciting violence is one goal of foreign adversaries.

A trend has emerged of bomb threats made specifically in more blue regions, many of them districts that voted for Biden in 2020. According to FBI officials last month, Russia’s goal for its disinformation campaigns was to support a Trump win.

Tuesday’s threats weren’t the first in Georgia. On Monday, a 25-year-old Georgia poll worker was arrested for “mailing a letter to the Jones County Elections Superintendent threatening poll workers,” the Department of Justice said in a statement.

In late October, a Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency official warned that events like this could take place and that election workers and state governments were prepared for it.

“We’re going to see a potential ransomware attack against a local election office. We may see an election night reporting website experience a DDoS,” she said at the time.

That type of cyberattack, a Distributed Denial of Service attack, was used to try and shut down the Georgia election website for the state’s absentee voter services just two days later on Oct. 24. “We’re going to see those things go wrong, and what is so important to remember is that it’s OK,” the official said.

“Election officials know that these types of disruptions are part of just election administration. They train and prepare and rehearse for these things,” they added.

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John T. Seward and Ben T.N. Mause are NOTUS reporters and Allbritton Journalism Institute fellows.