ATLANTA — Election officials in the Atlanta suburb of DeKalb County reported seven new bomb threats in the final hour before polling locations closed on Election Day.
The latest round of threats, reported by DeKalb County officials, was confirmed by the Georgia secretary of state just an hour after he stated no new threats had come in since other bomb threats were received this morning.
“We’ve had these bomb threats, and obviously the FBI has said they’re not realistic, but due to that, there will be precinct extensions,” Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said in a press conference at 6:45 p.m. local time Tuesday. “I’m frustrated as an American that people are threatening other Americans.”
Fifteen precincts across the region will remain open later to make up for the time lost due to evacuations at the affected sites.
County officials issued a statement around 6 p.m. local time, an hour before the 7 p.m. poll closing time, that it had received a slew of new threats following others made earlier in the day that were determined to be bogus and likely to have been sent from Russian entities.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
The newest wave of threats was directed at a predominantly black county. Census Bureau data from 2023 show that 53% of residents in DeKalb County are black, while 37% are white.
“Every asset that we have will be deployed to ensure that every citizen who wants to vote will be given that opportunity and every vote cast will be counted,” DeKalb County CEO Michael Thurmond said in a statement Tuesday evening.