Bomb threats reported at polling stations in the Philly area

Multiple polling places and precincts in Pennsylvania received anonymous bomb threats just hours before polls closed Tuesday, leading to brief evacuations at some polling locations and court orders to extend the hours of others.

Authorities had not yet identified who sent them. But the threats posed no real danger and in most cases voting and counting continued with little disruption, they said.

“State and local law enforcement agencies are working with the FBI to investigate these threats,” Governor Josh Shapiro said. “So far there is no credible threat.”

Yet in at least one county – Perry County – has stopped scanning the mail and absentee ballots after receiving a bomb threat Tuesday evening. They said they would resume mapping on Wednesday morning.

In Philadelphia, at least 10 polling places — including the Mummers Museum, the Palumbo Recreation Center, Courtyard at Riverside and the Maron Maronite Catholic Church, all in South Philadelphia — were threatened in a single email sent to several officials around 6 p.m. Nick said. Custodio, spokesperson for City Commissioner Lisa Deeley.

Officials in Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Centre, Luzerne, Clearfield, Perry and York counties also reported receiving similar messages.

They arrived on the same day that a series of bomb threats also targeted polling places in Georgia, which the FBI said “appeared to come from Russian email domains.” But as of Tuesday evening, investigators had not made any specific link between the Pennsylvania bombings and that same incident.

Philadelphia Democratic Committee member Ben Block said most voters seemed content to wait patiently as police searched several polling places in South Philadelphia’s Second Precinct, the site of most of the threats.

One location there was closed for 23 minutes until officers cleared the building. It later received a court order to extend its operating hours by another 23 minutes to make up for that time.

At St. Maronite Catholic Church, near 10th and Ellsworth, the vote count had been rising all day until election workers were forced to briefly evacuate the building for 15 minutes around 7 p.m.

“The good news was that the doors were opening again,” said Democratic precinct leader Will Gross. “And the people who wanted to vote during that period were able to go in and vote.”

In Chester County, the fake messages were addressed to the Government Services Center, home to both the elections office and where officials had been tracking the county’s vote.

They came in the form of an email that Chester County District Attorney Christopher De Barrena-Sarabo described as “of foreign origin,” which arrived in a group inbox for voter services staff at the county just before 7 p.m. province.

Voters and election workers huddled in a parking lot for about an hour as helicopters circled overhead and police cars lined the driveway leading to the facility. Police K-9s searched the building, but no explosives were found.

“What is clear from all the recent news reports and information from the FBI,” De Barrena-Sarabo said, “is that this is part of an ongoing, coordinated effort to use bomb threats to influence states to disrupt the election. ”

Josh Maxwell, chairman of the county Board of Commissioners, said county elections staff resumed the count undeterred.

They are “full throttle, ready to go,” he said. A district judge later extended the hours for two polling places in the building.

Meanwhile, in Bucks County, spokesman Jim O’Malley said officials were “confident in the security” of the county building that was the target of threats.

In Luzerne County, where the Bureau of Elections building was in Wilkes-Barre briefly evacuated after receiving a threat himselfCounty Commissioner Richard Morelli expressed the same bullishness.

“It’s always exciting here in Luzerne County,” he joked.

In addition to the email threats, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner reported that a man was arrested for personally making a bomb threat at a West Philadelphia polling place near 66th Street and Chester Avenue. But investigators don’t believe he had a plan or the means to keep his promise.

‘No bombs. No one was hurt. No boom,” Krasner said.

And during a press conference to mark the closure of polling stations in the city, he dismissed all threats as minor mistakes in an otherwise peaceful election.

“We were all hopeful that the city of Philadelphia would have a very smooth Election Day,” he said. “That’s largely what happened here.”