A voter deposits a mail-in ballot at the drop box outside the Chester County Government Center on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. (Capital-Star/Peter Hall)
Pennsylvania Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt said polling places and municipal buildings across Pennsylvania had received bomb threats Tuesday as voting came to an end and election officials started tallying.
“My team and I have been in direct communication with [Pennsylvania] State Police Col. Christopher Paris who is coordinating with local and federal law enforcement, as well as FEMA,” Schmidt. “State and local law enforcement along with the FBI are investigating these threats and thus far there is no credible threat to the public.”
Counties affected include Chester and Clearfield, according to public officials. A spokesperson for Chester County said officials would be releasing information later Tuesday evening.
About half an hour before polls closed at 8 p.m., Chester County Commissioner Josh Maxwell posted on social media that the Government Services Center where the county elections office is located was being evacuated due to a bomb threat.
Maxwell noted that the building outside the county seat of West Chester is where in-person ballots are received and tallied, but mail-in ballots are handled at a different location. He later posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that the threat mirrored those sent to election offices across Pennsylvania and the United States.
Chester County emergency officials are investigating a bomb threat sent to the Chester County Government Services Center which mirrors the bomb threats sent to election offices across Pennsylvania and the United States.
— Josh Maxwell (@maxwelljosh) November 6, 2024
Two polling places located in the Government Services Center were disrupted. Voting hours for the two polling locations were extended to 10 p.m. Voters were redirected to nearby polling places where they could cast provisional ballots.
Stacey Witalec, a spokesperson for the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Court, said a judge in Clearfield County granted a motion to extend voting hours to 9 p.m. after a threat was received at the Clearfield County Administrative Building.
(This story will be updated.)