Election day has come and gone, and while officials say it went smoothly overall, it wasn't without some notable disruptions, one of which Scripps News witnessed in person in Maricopa County, Arizona.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the federal agency tasked with supporting local and state election administrators, came out with a new statement Wednesday assuring Americans that the election was both safe and secure, and that they have “no evidence of any malicious activity that had a material impact on the security or integrity of our election infrastructure.” That assessment came in the wake of a rash of hoax bomb threats that were sent to polling locations around the country, including in Arizona.
“We are aware that there have been threats made, not just here in Arizona, but Georgia, Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin,” said Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes in a statement Tuesday. “This is another we believe, probing attack. We also have reason to believe, although I won't get into specifics that this comes from one of our foreman foreign enemies, namely Russia.”
The FBI also released a statement Tuesday warning the public that many appeared to originate from Russian email domains.
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Scripps News was inside the Maricopa County Sheriff’s command center in the evening on Election Day when they received a hoax bomb threat to the County Recorder’s office, which is just down the street from the Maricopa County Election and Tabulation Center.
The Sheriff’s office told Scripps News that the threat, which was sent in via email, was received by two other counties and was not credible, but due to the heightened security environment, they treated it as such until it could be confirmed the premise was secure.
In a call late Tuesday evening, CISA said election officials were prepared for the possibility of bomb threats and had frequently included the possibility of such threats in training and tabletop exercises.
