Election day plagued by bomb threats, arrests and broken machines

by · Mail Online

Election day plagued by bomb threats, arrests and broken machines as America hits the polls

America's divisive presidential election got off to a rocky start on Tuesday, with reports of bomb threats, arrests, and faulty polling machines disrupting voting, including in four battleground states.

Suspects have been arrested in connection with bomb threats and other election-related violence in Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Washington DC, while ballot machines broke down at a station in Pennsylvania.

Though these incidents have not come close to derailing the November 5 vote, the nation remains on edge over unsubstantiated claims of ballot rigging and lingering memories of violence after the 2020 contest.

Former president Donald Trump, the Republican candidate, has repeatedly warned of widespread fraud in the 2024 face-off. After casting his own vote in Palm Beach, Florida, he urged his staff to be 'watching to make sure there is no cheating.'

Against this tense backdrop, National Guard troops were activated in Washington DC and at least 18 states, including many of the election battlegrounds, while 350 troops are working to support the elections and tackle cyberthreats.

A verbal altercation between political campaigners in Savannah, Georgia, was an indication of how jumpy voters are on election day.

In Georgia, a crucial battleground in Trump's contest against Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, voting was marred by the arrest of a poll worker and reports of a bomb threat originating from a foreign adversary.

Nicholas Wimbish, 25, who has worked at the Jones County Elections Office, was arrested on Monday for allegedly mailing a letter threatening other poll workers with rape, a 'beatdown' and a bomb threat.

According to the US Department of Justice, Wimbish got into a verbal altercation with a voter at the office on October 16.

He allegedly wrote a letter the next day to a county elections chief, as if it came from the voter he had argued with, making a complaint against Wimbish for 'conspiring' in some kind of vote fraud.

It also said Wimbish and other poll workers 'should look over their shoulder,' threatened to 'beatdown' any aggressors, and 'rage rape' female poll workers, while warning of a bomb blast at an early voting station.

Elsewhere in Georgia, election officials had to evacuate two polling locations in Union City in Fulton County after bomb threats were called in by a 'foreign state actor,' said Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.

Local officials said five bomb threats were called into law enforcement, but were deemed non-credible. Raffensperger has previously accused Russia of attempting to interfere in the state's elections.

'Outside of these brief interruptions, Election Day has remained quiet,' a Fulton County election official told reporters.

'We remain ready and prepared to deal with any other potential disruptions.'

The FBI says other threats were directed against polling stations in Michigan and Wisconsin, but were also not 'credible.' Many of the threats appeared to originate from Russian email domains. 

In Michigan, FBI agents have arrested two people over issuing threats in the final days of the 2024 race, including a transient man who allegedly hinted at an assassination plot and threats against Trump.

The transient, Isaac Sissel, was arrested in Canton Township hotel after a probe that started last month with threats targeting Trump posted on Reddit by a user named 'ShootUpTrumpRally,' files unsealed on Tuesday showed.

Nicholas Wimbish, 25, who has worked at the Jones County Elections Office, in Georgia, was arrested on Monday for alleged threats.
Wimbish allegedly referred to an explosive 'boom toy' in the crudely-written letter, the FBI alleges. 
Police closed down a block around the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in the Washington DC to inspect unidentified objects, which turned out to be rocks and sand.
A Trump supporter, left, gets into a confrontation with a Harris fan outside an event for Tim Walz in Bristol Township, Pennsylvania, last week.

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That account was linked to others about shooting Trump and to Sissel's cell phone, according to FBI documents obtained by The Detroit News.

One of the messages threatened to 'carry out an attack against conservative christian filth in the event trump wins the election,' using an AR-15, hollow-point ammunition and a chemical irritant.

'I have a stolen ar15 and a target I refused to name so I can continue to get away with my plans,' it said.

When he was arrested at a Travelodge hotel on Monday, Sissel did not have any weapons, the FBI says.

He claimed to have a chemical irritant in his pocket, railed against right-wing political violence and made further threats against Trump, it is said.

'Sissel said that he believed that there would be violence during the election … and wouldn't rule out joining Antifa to protest,' an FBI report says.

Christopher Clay Pierce, 46, of Jackson, Michigan, was also arrested over threats he allegedly made to an unidentified political action committee related to the 2024 presidential election on October 2.

The threats were allegedly sent from Pierce's email account, in which he described himself as 'Your worst f*****g nightmare.'

'Every day, your people contact me with a campaign ad and it's calling me racist,' one threat read.

'You m***********s contact meagain [sic] I guarantee I can find each and every one of your f*****g organizees.

'This year proves Kamala Harrisis [sic] nothing but a f*****g communist piece of f*****g s**t and doesn't deserve to f*****g even be in the race tobecome [sic] president,' the threat read.

Authorities working to put out a fire at a ballot box in Vancouver, WA started early Monday morning. It was one of two fires set at two ballot boxes in two separate states early Monday.
Voting in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, descended into confusion after voting machines suddenly stopped working on election day.

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Man who 'smelled like fuel' with a flare gun arrested at the Capitol on Election Day

'Now you better stop or I promise you this is badly for all of you m***********s.'

Agents on October 30 questioned Piece, who admitted sending the messages but said they were not threatening, the FBI says. He has been investigated for other political posts overt the last two years.

Meanwhile in Washington, US Capitol Police said they arrested a man with a torch and a flare gun who attempted to enter the Capitol Visitor Center, the starting point of tours to the Capitol buildings, on Tuesday.

According to a post on X, the man was stopped during the screening process when officers noticed he 'smelled like fuel.' They found him in possession of a torch and flare gun.

Police also closed down a block around the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in the capital to inspect unidentified objects, which turned out to be rocks and sand.

In Pennsylvania, perhaps the most hotel contested battleground in this year's race, voting in Cambria County descended into confusion after voting machines suddenly stopped working on election day.

Electors were asked to place their ballots into a box rather than submit it to the electronic machine.

They did as they were asked, then shared their thoughts on social media.

'Very interest... they go to start scanning our ballots into the box and guess what? The box doesn't work,' posted Amanda Wagner.

'What did they do? They just unlock it and stick all of our ballots underneath.'

It remains unclear what triggered the malfunction, which officials say has been fixed.

More than 82 million people voted ahead of November 5. 

Those casting election day ballots mostly encountered a smooth process, with some reports of hiccups that regularly happen, including long lines, technical issues and ballot printing errors. 

Americans had been braced for civil unrest amid scary predictions of 'blood' ahead of the presidential election that appears to hinge on the results in just seven swing states.

Businesses in Washington, DC on Monday boarded up their windows as security fencing went up around the White House, US Vice President Harris's residence, and other key buildings in the capital.

Passers-by stand in front of a protective fence on the grounds of the White House amid fears of violence

Fights broke out at polling stations and election workers were prepared for gun attacks, amid a flurry of threats to blow up political offices and other sensitive sites ahead of election day.

The 2024 race has already seen bloodshed, with the July 13 shooting at a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, which grazed the former president and left one attendee dead and two more wounded.

The contest was also marred by damning rhetoric between the rival campaigns. A speaker at a Trump rally spoke recently of the 'slaughter' of Democrats, and Trump himself has spoken of 'shooting at' former Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney.

Meanwhile, Harris has called Trump a 'threat' to democracy who must be defeated at the ballot box, while her boss the outgoing President Joe Biden has called the MAGA Republican's supporters 'garbage.'

Meanwhile, the specter of January 6, 2021, when supporters of Trump stormed the US Capitol, seeking to overturn the former president's election loss to Biden - has cast a long shadow over US politics.

This time round, Trump has refused to state if he'll accept the election results, and has alleged fraud and cheating in neck-and-neck swing states such as Pennsylvania, laying the groundwork for what many fear will be more unrest.