The last day of voting in the United States has arrived

WASHINGTON (AP) A series of bomb threats in several battleground states and baseless allegations of wrongdoing by former President Donald Trump disrupted an otherwise smooth Election Day that ended a tumultuous presidential campaign.

Bomb threats in parts of Arizona, Georgia and Pennsylvania on Tuesday turned out to be hoaxes, but they forced some polling places to evacuate and extended opening hours, and delayed the counting of certain ballot papers.

The threats were reported throughout the day at polling places in three metro Atlanta counties, all with large numbers of Democratic voters, and into the evening at polling places and election offices of Pennsylvania where the ballots were being counted. Bomb threats were also reported in Arizona, Michigan and Wisconsin, according to state election officials.

Voters wait in line and fill out their ballots at a voting center at the Lumen Field Event Center on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said at an evening news conference that the hoaxes posed no danger to the public or the election.

Every legal, eligible vote will be counted and counted accurately, and the will of the people of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania will be respected, said Shapiro, a Democrat.

Neither Shapiro nor the Pennsylvania State Police have released details about who might be behind the hoaxes.

In Georgia's Fulton County, which includes Atlanta, 32 of 177 polling places received bomb threats and five were briefly evacuated. Polling stations were able to reopen after the threats.

This just shows you the resilience of our system and our people. They have been combat tested, said Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican.

People voted on Tuesday, November 5, 2024, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

An election worker processes mail-in ballots for the 2024 general election at the Philadelphia Election Warehouse, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

The FBI said many bomb threats in several states appeared to come from Russian email domains, although federal cybersecurity officials cautioned that the culprits were not necessarily Russian.

The dramatic and disturbing end to Election Day came after a highly successful early voting period, when at least half of all expected presidential election votes had been cast. As of Tuesday, more than 84 million Americans had already voted.

Overall, the final day of voting was characterized by the same kinds of routine hiccups and frustrations seen in other elections: a poll worker forgetting to bring a key; ballot printing errors; the ballot counting machines do not work.

The vast majority of problems were largely expected, routine and planned events, said Cait Conley, senior adviser to the director of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

Turnout was robust in many states on Tuesday. In Nevada, one of the West's two presidential battlegrounds, long lines were reported in Reno and Las Vegas. After polls closed, there was another three-hour wait at a polling place at the University of Nevada, Reno, according to local election officials.

Despite no evidence of widespread voting problems, Trump made unsubstantiated claims about Philadelphia and Detroit and raised questions about election operations in Milwaukee, the largest cities in three states crucial to deciding the presidency.

Local officials quickly dismissed Trump's claims on his social media platform, saying there was no indication of a problem that would affect the accurate vote count.

The absence of major problems has not stopped Trump, the Republican nominee or the Republican National Committee from making numerous allegations of fraud or election interference during the early voting period, a possible prelude to challenges after the day of the ballot.

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In Georgia, a federal judge ruled frivolous a last-minute attempt by Republicans to challenge the collection of mail-in ballots at Atlanta-area election offices last weekend, after early voting ended. U.S. District Judge R. Stan Baker, a Trump appointee, said the Republican Party's argument doesn't stand up to even the most basic level of statutory scrutiny and reading comprehension.

Voters work on their ballots at a polling station at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in Simi Valley, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Trump suggested Tuesday that he would not challenge the election results as long as they were fair.

If this is a fair election, I will be the first to recognize the results, Trump said, although what meets that definition is unclear.

Trump's Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, had urged voters not to fall for Trump's tactic of casting doubt on the election.

The former president began making unsubstantiated claims about voting, vote counting and law enforcement as Election Day voting drew to a close.

He said on his social media platform that there was talk of massive cheating in Philadelphia and that law enforcement was on the way. He provided no details and there was no immediate indication of what he was referring to. His spokespeople did not respond to requests for comment on what he meant.

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner issued a statement dismissing Trump's claims as baseless.

There is no factual basis within law enforcement to support this wild allegation, Krasner said. If Donald J. Trump has facts to support his wild claims, we want them now.

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 not aware of any special law enforcement mobilizations or any type of incident that would require it.

One of three members of Philadelphia's election board, Seth Bluestein, a Republican, said on social media that Trump's comment was another example of misinformation. At an evening news conference, he emphasized the security of the city's vote: There is no evidence of massive cheating, he said.

Detroit police were also intrigued by another message from Trump that read: Philadelphia and Detroit! The police are here! Detroit police said no problems were reported inside or outside Huntington Place, the massive convention hall where election workers were counting ballots.

Volunteers check ballots at the Bronx County Supreme Court in New York on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

In the evening, outside the center, traffic was light and no demonstrators were in sight. Barricades were set up outside the room and escalators to and from the area were closed. Police also reported no major problems at the city's more than 400 polling stations.

The former president said there was a heavy law enforcement presence in Philadelphia and Detroit. That wasn't true, Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said at an evening news conference.

In Milwaukee, election officials said they were recounting more than 30,000 absentee ballots out of an abundance of caution after discovering that the doors on the back of ballot scanners were not properly sealed. The effort, which has caught the attention of Trump and the RNC, is expected to delay the count there.

Republican Sen. Ron Johnson visited the Milwaukee counting center with the chairman of the Wisconsin Republican Party to observe the efforts. Less than two months before Election Day, Milwaukee's elections office received praise from Republicans who oversee the state's elections and who said they were confident it was ready.

Arizona, a hotly contested swing state, saw many Election Day challenges. Bomb threats targeted polling places in Cochise, Navajo and Yavapai counties, delaying some results, and frustrated Native American voters waited in line for hours in Apache County. A judge ordered some polling places to stay open two extra hours due to equipment malfunctions and a lack of printed ballots.

Throughout the day, members of the Navajo Nation reported being turned away by poll workers after waiting for hours. More than 43,000 registered voters live in the Apache County portion of the Navajo Nation, according to court documents in the lawsuit seeking to extend voting.

Zane James said he waited in the cold with about 50 other voters for about two and a half hours before being able to vote due to a problem with the site's single printer.

It was just a disaster, it was terrible, he said.

At a polling place in Chinle, on the Navajo Nation, Amanda Woody said she didn't know how long it would be before she could vote.

There's a queue, but I'm willing to wait, she says. Every vote counts.

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