Revealed: Ten Arizona counties were targeted by Russian hoax bomb threats on Election Day

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes revealed Tuesday that two-thirds of Arizona’s counties — twice as many as was previously known — received bomb threats on Election Day.

The FBI said on Election Day that “several states” received bomb threats against particular polling locations and that the threats originate from Russian email domains. None of the threats have been deemed credible.

During a roundtable discussion with journalists, Mayes elaborated on those threats when asked by the Arizona Mirror, adding that 10 of Arizona’s 15 counties had received threats. She said that a county supervisor in La Paz County called her personally after they received one.

The counties that received threats were Cochise, Coconino, Gila, La Paz, Maricopa, Navajo, Pima, Pinal, Yavapai and Yuma.

“It is a really troubling sign of where we are as a country,” Mayes said. “It has a very disruptive effect.”

Mayes said that the non-credible threats did not impact the election as a whole, but many places across the country and in Arizona had to undergo evacuations due to the threats. Mayes said that officials in La Paz County had to evacuate on Election Night as ballots were starting to arrive to be tabulated.

“We were dealing with that on a real-time basis with local law enforcement,” she said, adding that Arizona’s Counter Terrorism Information Center was helping coordinate efforts.

Other states seemingly had it worse, like Georgia, which reported over 60 bomb threats. An analysis of the threats by NBC News found that many targeted largely Democratic areas.

The Arizona Secretary of State’s Office said it “does not have any additional info to add.”

On the night of the election, Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer was seen evacuating his office due to one of the threats. Despite the threats, elections across the country ran relatively smoothly.

Arizona Mirror is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Arizona Mirror maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jim Small for questions: info@azmirror.com. Follow Arizona Mirror on Facebook and X.