Bomb threats briefly disrupt voting in swing states, while Trump makes baseless claims about Election Day

WASHINGTON – A largely smooth Election Day nationally was marred in several battleground states on Tuesday by a series of bomb threats and unsubstantiated claims of misconduct by former President Donald Trump.

The bomb threats in parts of Arizona, Georgia and Pennsylvania turned out to be a hoax, but forced evacuations and some polling places had to extend hours.

The threats were reported throughout the day at polling places in three metro Atlanta counties, all with large numbers of Democratic voters, and into the evening at polling stations and election offices where ballots were being counted in Pennsylvania. Bomb threats were also reported at three voting locations in Navajo County, Arizona, according to the secretary of state’s office.

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro said at an evening news conference that the hoaxes posed no danger to the public — or to the election. “Every legal, eligible vote will be accurately counted and counted, and the will of the people in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania will be respected,” said Shapiro, a Democrat.

Neither Shapiro nor Pennsylvania State Police provided details about who might be behind the hoaxes or why Shapiro believed there was no threat to the public.

In Georgia’s Fulton County, which includes Atlanta, 32 of 177 polling stations were threatened with bomb threats and five were briefly evacuated. After the threats, the polling stations were able to open again.

“That just shows the resilience of our system and our people. We have been tested,” said Georgia Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.

The FBI said Tuesday afternoon that many hoax bomb threats in several states appeared to come from Russian email domains.

The dramatic and disturbing end to Election Day came after a highly successful early voting period, when at least half of all expected votes in the presidential election had been cast. More than 84 million Americans had already voted on Tuesday.

Overall, the final day of voting on Tuesday was marked by the same kinds of routine hiccups and frustrations as other elections: a poll worker who forgot to bring a key; errors in printing ballots; voting machines don’t work.

The vast majority of the issues were “largely expected, routine and planned events,” said Cait Conley, senior adviser to the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

Despite no evidence of widespread voting problems, Trump made unsubstantiated claims regarding Philadelphia and Detroit, and raised questions about election operations in Milwaukee, the largest cities in three states that will be crucial in deciding the presidency.

Local officials quickly dismissed the claims Trump made on his social media platform, saying there was no evidence of problems that would affect the accurate counting of votes.

The lack of significant problems hasn’t stopped Trump, the Republican nominee, or the Republican National Committee from making numerous claims of fraud or election interference during the early voting period, a possible prelude to post-Election Day challenges.

In Georgia, a federal judge has ruled as “frivolous” a last-minute effort by Republicans to challenge the collection of ballots from Atlanta-area election offices last weekend — after early voting ended. U.S. District Judge R. Stan Baker, a Trump appointee, said the Republican Party’s argument “does not stand up to even the most basic level of legal scrutiny and reading comprehension.”

Trump suggested Tuesday that he would not dispute the results of the election — as long as they are fair.

“If it’s a fair election, I would be the first to acknowledge the results,” Trump said, although it was not clear what meets that definition.

The former president began making unsubstantiated claims about voting, vote counting and law enforcement as the election drew to a close on Election Day.

He said on his social media platform that there was “talk of massive hoaxing in Philadelphia” and that law enforcement was on its way. He gave no details and there was no immediate indication of what he was referring to. His spokespeople did not respond to requests for comment on what he meant.

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner issued a statement dismissing Trump’s claims as baseless.

“There is no factual basis in law enforcement to support this wild accusation,” Krasner said. “If Donald J. Trump has facts to support his wild accusations, we want them now. At this moment. We are not holding our breath.”

Federal election security officials and Shapiro also said they had seen nothing to support Trump’s claims. Officer Miguel Torres of the Philadelphia Police Department said he was not aware of any special law enforcement mobilization or “any incident” that would require it.

One of the three members of the Philadelphia election board, Seth Bluestein, a Republican, said on social media that Trump’s comment was “yet another example of disinformation.” At an evening press conference, he stressed the security of the city’s vote: “There is no evidence of large-scale cheating,” he said.

Police in Detroit were equally astonished by another Trump post that read, “Philadelphia and Detroit! There is heavy law enforcement!” Detroit police said no problems were reported inside or outside Huntington Place, the massive convention hall where election workers were assigned to count ballots.

Evening traffic outside the center was calm and there were no demonstrators in sight. Barricades had been erected outside the room and escalators to and from the area were closed. Police also reported that there were no major problems at the city’s more than 400 polling stations.

In Milwaukee, election officials said they were recounting more than 30,000 mail-in ballots “out of an abundance of caution” after it was discovered that the doors on the back of the ballot scanners were not properly closed. The effort, which caught the attention of Trump and the RNC, was expected to delay the count there.

Republican Senator Ron Johnson went to the central counting site in Milwaukee with the chairman of the Republican Party of Wisconsin to observe the recount and said it did not appear the city was prepared for the election. Less than two months before Election Day, Milwaukee’s elections office had drawn praise from Republicans who oversee the state’s elections and who expressed confidence that the state was ready.

Trump’s Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, has urged voters not to fall for Trump’s tactics to sow doubt about elections. She cast her own vote Tuesday afternoon at a phone bank hosted by the Democratic National Committee, saying phone banking “represents the best of who we are.”