New Delhi:
The FBI warned of bomb threats at polling stations in “a number of” US states on Election Day, including that none have been credible however many appeared to originate from Russia.
The assertion from the Federal Bureau of Investigation got here as authorities within the US state of Georgia mentioned bomb threats had briefly disrupted voting there Tuesday.
The 2024 US presidential marketing campaign has been a very risky one, and safety for Election Day had been ramped as much as unprecedented ranges given issues over attainable civil unrest, election chicanery and violence towards ballot employees.
“The FBI is conscious of bomb threats to polling places in a number of states, a lot of which seem to originate from Russian e-mail domains,” spokeswoman Savannah Syms mentioned in a press release.
“Not one of the threats have been decided to be credible to this point,” she added, urging the general public to “stay vigilant.”
Georgia’s secretary of state Brad Raffensperger mentioned the state had additionally recognized the supply of bomb threats that briefly disrupted voting at polling locations there, “and it was from Russia.”
He didn’t elaborate. An election official in Georgia’s Fulton County mentioned polling locations have been briefly closed because the threats have been investigated.
With Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump deadlocked on the climax of the 2024 race, authorities are eager to reassure jittery Individuals that their votes are safe. However they’re additionally bolstering bodily safety for election operations nationwide.
Runbeck Election Providers, which supplies safety expertise for ballot operations, confirmed to AFP Monday it had ordered some 1,000 panic buttons for shoppers that embrace election services and their employees.
The FBI has arrange a nationwide election command publish in Washington to observe threats 24 hours a day by election week, and safety has been bolstered at most of the practically 100,000 US polling stations.
The states of Oregon, Washington and Nevada have activated the Nationwide Guard — and the Pentagon says a minimum of 17 states have positioned a complete of 600 Nationwide Guard troops on standby if wanted.
(Apart from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is printed from a syndicated feed.)
