Election Day has come and gone, and while officials say it went smoothly overall, it hasn’t been without some notable disruptions, one of which Scripps News reported in Maricopa, Arizona. I witnessed it firsthand in the county.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the federal agency tasked with assisting local and state election officials, announced the following: New statement on Wednesday He assured Americans that the election was safe and secure and that there was “no evidence of malicious activity that materially affected the security or integrity of our nation’s election infrastructure.” The assessment comes after a series of false bomb threats were sent to polling places across the country, including in Arizona.

“We are aware that threats have been made not only here in Arizona, but also in Georgia, Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin,” Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes said in a statement Tuesday. “This is another probing attack that we believe. Without going into details, we also have reason to believe that this was the work of a foreman from our external enemy, Russia.”

FBI too issued a statement on Tuesday It warned the public that many appeared to be coming from Russian email domains.

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On the evening of Election Day, Scripps News was inside the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Command Center when we received a hoax bomb threat to the County Recorder’s Office, which is located right next to the Maricopa County Election Tabulation Center.

The sheriff’s office told Scripps News that the emailed threat had also been received in two other counties and was not reliable, but that the facility’s heightened security environment meant He said he was treating it as such until it was confirmed that it was safe. .

In a call late Tuesday night, CISA said election officials were preparing for the possibility of bomb threats and frequently included such threats in training and tabletop exercises.