Washington: A mostly smooth Election Day nationwide was marred in multiple battleground states Tuesday by a series of bomb threats and baseless claims of wrongdoing by former President Donald Trump.
The bomb threats in parts of Arizona, Georgia and Pennsylvania turned out to be hoaxes, but forced evacuations and some polling places to extend hours.
The threats were reported throughout the day at polling locations in three metro Atlanta counties, all with large numbers of Democratic voters, and into the evening at polling places and election offices where ballots were being counted in Pennsylvania. Bomb threats also were reported at three voting locations in Navajo County, Arizona, according to the secretary of state's office.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said in an evening news conference that the hoaxes posed no danger to the public — or to the election. "Every legal, eligible vote will be counted and counted accurately, and the will of the people in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania will be respected," said Shapiro, a Democrat.
Neither Shapiro nor Pennsylvania State Police gave 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 places received bomb threats and five were briefly evacuated. The polling locations were able to reopen after the threats.
"That just shows you the resilience of our system and our people. We're battle-tested," said Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican.
The FBI on Tuesday afternoon said many of hoax bomb threats in several states appeared to originate from Russian email domains.
The dramatic and troubling end to Election Day came after a highly successful early voting period, when at least half of all votes expected in the presidential election had been cast. By Tuesday, more than 84 million Americans had already voted.
Overall, the final day of voting on Tuesday was characterized by the same kind of routine hiccups and frustrations seen in other elections: a polling worker forgetting to bring a key; ballot printing mistakes; ballot counting machines not working.
The vast majority of problems were "largely expected, routine and planned-for 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 related to Philadelphia and Detroit, and raised questions about election operations in Milwaukee, the biggest cities in three states that will be crucial for deciding the presidency.
Local officials quickly knocked down the claims Trump made on his social media platform, saying there were no indications of any problems that would affect accurately tallying the vote.
The absence of any significant problems had not 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 challenges after Election Day.
In Georgia, a federal judge rejected as "frivolous" a last-minute effort by Republicans to challenge Atlanta-area election offices' collection of mail ballots last weekend — after early voting had ended. U.S. District Judge R. Stan Baker, a Trump appointee, said the GOP argument "does not withstand even the most basic level of statutory review and reading comprehension."
Trump on Tuesday suggested he wouldn't challenge the results of the election — as long as it's fair.
"If it's a fair election, I'd be the first one to acknowledge" the results, Trump said, though what meets that definition wasn't clear.
The former president began making unsubstantiated claims about voting, ballot counting and law enforcement as Election Day voting neared its end.
He said on his social media platform that there was "talk about massive cheating in Philadelphia" and said law enforcement was on the way. He did not provide details, and there was no immediate indication of what he was referring to. His spokespeople did not respond to requests for comment about what he meant.
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner issued a statement rejecting Trump's claims as baseless.
"There is no factual basis whatsoever within law enforcement to support this wild allegation," Krasner said. "If Donald J. Trump has any facts to support his wild allegations, we want them now. Right now. 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 unaware of any special law enforcement mobilization or "any kind of incident" that would require it.
One of three Philadelphia election board members, Seth Bluestein, a Republican, said on social media that Trump's comment "is yet another example of disinformation." During an evening news conference, he emphasized the security of the city's vote: "There is no evidence whatsoever of massive cheating," he said.
Police in Detroit were equally puzzled by another Trump post that said, "Philadelphia and Detroit! Heavy Law Enforcement is there!" Detroit police said there were no reported issues inside or outside of Huntington Place, the massive convention room where election workers were to count ballots.
Evening traffic outside the center was light with no protesters in sight. Barricades were up outside the room and escalators to and from the area were shut off. Police also reported no major problems in the city's more than 400 voting precincts.
In Milwaukee, election officials said they were recounting more than 30,000 mail ballots "out of an abundance of caution" after it was discovered that doors on the back of ballot scanners were not properly sealed. The effort, which drew the attention of Trump and the RNC, was expected to delay the count there.
Republican Sen. Ron Johnson went to the Milwaukee central count location with the chairman of the Wisconsin Republican Party to observe the recount and said it didn't seem like the city was prepared for the election. Less than two months before Election Day, the Milwaukee election office had drawn praise from Republicans who oversee elections in the state and who had expressed confidence that it was ready.
Trump's Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, has urged voters not to fall for Trump's tactic of casting doubt on elections. She was spending Tuesday afternoon turning out her own vote at a phone bank hosted by the Democratic National Committee, and said phone banking represents "the best of who we are."
