(NewsNation) — There were a series of hoax bomb threats targeting Georgia polling sites on Tuesday, but the state still saw record voter turnout, Sec. of State Brad Raffensperger said on NewsNation.
Michigan, Arizona and Wisconsin also saw such threats, according to the FBI, but none were determined by the agency to be credible. The FBI said they appeared to originate from Russia.
Five of these threats temporarily evacuated two Fulton County, Georgia, precincts for about 30 minutes each,” Fulton County Election Director Nadine Williams said at a morning news conference.
Raffensperger said that 12 precincts stayed open 20 to 30 minutes later because of the threats, but all the polling sites throughout Georgia were able to close around 8 p.m. ET.
In total, Raffensperger said Georgia had a total of 5,222,397 votes as of Tuesday evening, including those from Election Day, early and absentee voting.
“That’s a new record,” he said.
Raffensperger said officials worked through the threats after law enforcement agencies told them to just continue voting.
“We just put our head down and realized there’s a hoax,” Raffensperger said. “It wasn’t a major disruption. It’s just an annoyance that people would be pestering us on Election Day.”
Reuters contributed to this report.
