ELECTION SECURITYFBI: Bomb Threats Against U.S. Voting Locations Appear to Be Coming from Russia

A series of bomb threats sent to polling locations across the United States appears to be coming from Russia, according to new assessments from both federal and state officials.

The initial bomb threats early Tuesday put a temporary stop to voting at a number of locations in parts of the Southeastern state of Georgia. But state officials quickly determined the threats were not credible.

“We identified the source, and it was from Russia,” Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger told reporters.

“They’re up to mischief and it seems they don’t want us to have a smooth, fair and accurate election,” Raffensperger added. “They think if they can get us to fight amongst ourselves, they can count that as a victory.”

Only the effort to disrupt the U.S. election appears to be much broader.

The FBI Tuesday said it is “aware of bomb threats to polling locations in several states.”

It further said many of the threats “appear to originate from Russian email domains.”

“None of the threats have been determined to be credible thus far,” the bureau said. “We will continue to work closely with our state and local law enforcement partners to respond to any threats to our elections and to protect our communities as Americans exercise their right to vote.”

The suspected Russian ploy builds on other last-minute attempts to disrupt the U.S. election.

Earlier Tuesday, as many U.S. voters prepared to cast their ballots, the FBI warned voters of at least two efforts to use the bureau’s name and likeness to promote false narratives.

In one case, FBI officials pointed to faked news clips urging Americans to “vote remotely” because of the increased threats of a terror attack. In the other, the FBI cautioned that social media accounts were spreading video of a fabricated news release about five prisons across the country involved in a vote-rigging scheme.

The bureau said both videos are “not authentic” and do not represent the current threat posture.

The FBI did not say who was responsible for creating the videos, which began to circulate just three days after two other fraudulent videos purporting to be from the FBI began circulating on social media.

The earlier videos falsely stated the bureau had apprehended three-linked groups for ballot fraud and made false claims about the husband of U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris.

In recent days, U.S. intelligence officials have assigned responsibility for other videos, not referencing the FBI but claiming to show voting irregularities to Russian influence actors.