Election day bomb threat

Posted by Rich Schwartzman on November 6, 2024

Voters stand in line under foggy gray skies outside a polling place in Concord Township.

It was a far cry from the spring primary when it was sunny, but with few voters going to the polls. Early morning voters yesterday were met with fog and a lot of neighbors. However, a major incident arose about 70 minutes before the polls closed Tuesday night.

Chester County Councilman Josh Maxwell posted on Facebook at 7:32 p.m. that the county Government Services Building was being evacuated because of a bomb threat.

“There was a bomb threat to the Government Services Center in West Chester. It's being evacuated. Voter Services is located there, and in-person ballots are delivered after 8 p.m. Mail-in ballots are canvassed and tabulated at a different location, he said in the post.

Sheriff Kevin D. Dykes later confirmed Maxwell’s post saying Voters’ Services got the threat at 6:50 p.m. via email, and the Department of Emergency Services ordered the building evacuated and explosive-sniffing dogs from the sheriff’s office were called in. No explosives were found.

Chester County District Attorney Chris de Barrena-Sarobe that the FBI was contacted.

Larry Smith hands out sample ballots to voters standing in line to vote in Chadds Ford Township.

“We’ve been in coordination with. the FBI about this threat. This appears to be overseas in origin. They’re working off an idea that some of the IP addresses are coming from Russia,” he said. “What is clear from news reports and information from the FBI is that this is part of a persistent, coordinated attempt to call in bomb threats in swing states in order to disrupt the election.”

de Barrena-Sarobe added that the county was ready.

“We prepared here in Chester County for something like this. We deployed all of our resources just like we planned and I’m happy to say that the building is safe, the threat appears to be dubious,” the district attorney said.

There were some smaller glitches in the Greater Chadds Ford area. Pennsbury Township Constable David Cox said a Pennsbury resident who had been voting at the municipal building there for years was told he had to go to Chadds Ford to vote, which he did, according to Chadds Ford Constable Phil Wenrich.

Wenrich also reported that a Bethel Township resident had to vote in Chadds Ford Township.

The big draw, of course, was the presidential race between former President Donald Trump and incumbent Vice President Kamala Harris. But races that have a more direct influence on the everyday life of people are the more local elections, those for state House and Senate.

It appears that Republican Craig Williams has retained his seat as representative for Pennsylvania’s 160^th Legislative District with a combined vote total in Chester and Delaware counties of 21,328 against challenger Elizabeth Moro’s 12,109. Moro did get more votes than Williams in Chester County, but the incumbent made up for that by taking Delaware County.

The Chester County vote totals were 7494 for Moro and 6,994 for Williams. However, Williams took DelCo 14,334 to 12,109.

In the 158^th Legislative District, incumbent Democrat Christina Sappey beat challenger Tina Ayala with 56.77 percent of the votes, 19,297 to 14,656.

State Sen. John Kane, D-9, held off a challenge from Republican Mike Woodin, 75,503 to 60,702, according to USA Today.

In the U.S. House of Representative races, incumbent Democrat Mary Gay Scanlon easily held off a challenge from Alfeia Goodwin 199,823 to 188,729 to keep her seat representing Pennsylvania’s 5^th Congressional District, while Chrissy Houlahan, the incumbent Democrat representing the 6^th Congressional District, has kept her seat by defeating Neil Young, 166,656 to 130,708.

In other election results, Republican challenger David McCormick appears to have defeated incumbent U.S. Sen. Bob Casey by a narrow margin, 49.2 percent to 48.3 percent. Raw totals are 3,299,829 to 3,237,784. Votes in that race are still being counted and the race is considered too close to call. And it appears that former President Donald Trump will again be president, defeating incumbent Vice President Kamala Harris.

No votes are unofficial until certified.

About Rich Schwartzman

Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.