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

Russia has denied any involvement.

The latest incidents are part of what some U.S. officials have described as a “firehose of disinformation” and follow a warning from U.S. intelligence agencies late Monday that Russia, and to a lesser extent Iran, were likely to intensify their influence operations on Election Day and in the days and weeks that follow.

“Influence actors linked to Russia in particular are manufacturing videos and creating fake articles to undermine the legitimacy of the election, instill fear in voters regarding the election process, and suggest Americans are using violence against each other due to political preferences,” according to the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence, in coordination with the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).

“We anticipate Russian actors will release additional manufactured content with these themes through election day and in the days and weeks after polls close,” the statement added. “These efforts risk inciting violence, including against election officials.”

But CISA, which helps oversee the security of U.S. election infrastructure, said Tuesday the election was running as smoothly as could be expected.

“At this point, we are not currently tracking any national level significant incidents impacting security of our election infrastructure,” CISA Senior Adviser Cait Conley said during a briefing with reporters.

Conley said earlier that CISA has been tracking some disruptions related to weather and other issues like equipment failures, describing them as “really routine and honestly, expected types of disruptions.”

CISA officials have warned that informational websites and infrastructure related to the election could be targeted by ransomware or distributed denial of service attacks. But they have emphasized that while inconvenient, such attacks would have little impact on the ability of Americans to cast ballots, since none of the country’s election systems are connected to the internet and because 97% of voting precincts have paper backups.

Still, there are concerns U.S. adversaries may try to seize upon any disruptions to incite panic and even violence.

“We know our foreign adversaries see this window of time, both Election Day and the days immediately following, as an opportunity to stoke further division and undermine American confidence in our democratic institutions,” Conley said. “And that is regardless of who wins.”

Common Cause, a nonpartisan watchdog and advocacy organization that has election observers stationed across the country, said Monday there has been tension at some polling places.

“We’re seeing instances of folks being yelled out at the polls,” Suzanne Almeida, the group’s director of state operations, said during a call with reporters.

Jeff Seldin is VOA national security reporter. The article is published courtesy of the Voice of America (VOA).