Polling stations in Arizona shocked by ‘unsubstantiated’ bomb threats, possibly from Russia

Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes said the state is monitoring the threats made, but he assured voters and poll workers Tuesday that they are unsubstantiated.

The bomb threats were made against four specific locations in Arizona in Navajo County as millions of people head to the polls for Election Day.

“These are baseless threats. We have no reason to believe that any of our voters or any of our polling stations are in any danger,” Fontes told reporters in a briefing.

He was briefed by his security team and law enforcement authorities are working with the FBI.

Earlier in the day, Fontes said it was believed the threat came from overseas and specifically mentioned Russia.

In a second briefing, he said the threats came from a ‘.ru’ email address, indicating this could mean the threat came from Russia, but he said this had not yet been confirmed.

“The motive appears to be to cause chaos, and not to influence any political outcome,” he said during the second briefing.

No polling stations have been closed because of the threat, he said.

Fontes said Election Day is generally going very well in most of the state.

It comes as there have also been threats in Georgia, Wisconsin and Michigan.

“The FBI is aware of bomb threats against polling places in several states, many of which appear to have originated from Russian email domains,” the FBI said in a statement.

“None of the threats have been determined to be credible to date,” the FBI added.

The FBI called election integrity one of its top priorities. They work closely with state officials and local law enforcement to respond to any threats to the election.

In Arizona, thousands of people line up all day to cast their votes.

Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes will speak on November 5 about the status of voting in the state

Polling stations in the state are open until 7 p.m.

The Foreign Minister previously reminded voters that if they line up by 7 p.m., they can vote in the elections.

Besides the bomb threats in Navajo County, there were some locations in Apache County that had problems with printers. Engineering teams helped get these up and running, but most sites there were running without a hitch.

In Maricopa County, which includes more than half the state’s population and is considered one of the nation’s leading indicators, operations were largely on time.

Some locations had lines that lasted about an hour to vote there, but the average wait time on Tuesday afternoon was just two minutes.