FBI, Georgia secretary of state blame polling place bomb threats on Russians

(This story was updated with additional information.)

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger confirmed Tuesday a bomb threat was made against a polling place, but he said it was of Russian origin and not credible. Raffensperger later clarified in a subsequent press conference that the threat affected between five and seven precincts in multiple Georgia counties.

“In the interest of public safety, you always check that out,” Raffensperger said.

“They’re up to mischief it seems,” he added, about the Russians. “They don’t want us to have a smooth, fair and accurate election.”

Raffensperger indicated the federal government was involved in identifying the threat, but declined to elaborate further on which law enforcement agencies responded or how he knew the threat came from Russia. He said the threat was dealt with Tuesday morning and law enforcement was on top of it.

The FBI announced Tuesday that bomb threats were made to polling locations in several states, and many of the threats “appear to originate from Russian email domains.”

None of the threats have been determined to be credible so far, the agency said.

“We will continue to work closely with our state and local law enforcement partners to respond to any threats to our elections and to protect our communities as Americans exercise their right to vote,” the FBI said in a statement. “As always, we urge the public to remain vigilant and report suspicious activity to state or local law enforcement, or submit tips to the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI.”

Georgia is one of seven key battleground states ? making it a target of foreign interference in the election ? as it helps determine the presidential contest between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Russians were blamed for other mischief in Georgia. For example, a video circulating on social media falsely purports to show a Haitian immigrant claiming to have voted multiple times in Georgia was blamed on Russians, according to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

Raffensperger's office called the video "targeted disinformation" and said it was likely produced by "Russian troll farms."

Russians were also blamed for a cyber attack called a denial-of-service attack against his office’s web site on Oct. 14. But Raffensperger said the office added a question about whether each visitor to the web site was a human and it curtailed the attack.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Georgia election bomb threat came from Russia: FBI, Brad Raffensperger