By Gabbie Burton
Contributing Writer

Chester County Voter Services received an emailed bomb threat targeting the Chester County Government Services Center in West Chester shortly before polls closed on election night, Tuesday, Nov. 5. The two polling locations located in the building were moved to nearby polling locations and voting hours were extending to 10 p.m., while the building was promptly cleared by authorities.

The FBI is currently investigating the incident; however, the Chester County District Attorney’s office shared that the threat mirrored bomb threats were sent to other counties in the state and across the country. In Pennsylvania alone, it was reported that at least 32 counties received bomb threats.

The FBI issued a press release on election night that read, “The FBI is aware of bomb threats to polling locations in several states, many of which appear to originate from Russian email domains. None of the threats have been determined to be credible thus far.”

At a press conference that night, Chester County District Attorney Christopher de Barrena-Sarobe said that the threats were part of “a persistent, coordinated attempt” to disrupt the election in swing states. The DA’s office also said that Chester County officials were prepared for this scenario and carried out their actions as planned.

While the Government Services Center was the only location in the county to receive a bomb threat, they were not the only location to evacuate. The Kennett Area Democrats evacuated their office in the Kennett Square Borough around 8 p.m., due to the threat.

Whitney Hoffman, Chair of the Kennett Area Democrats, received a call from a regional organizer on the Harris-Walz campaign advising the group – as well as all Chester County Democratic headquarters -- to evacuate their locations due to safety concerns. The group previously planned on staying at the office that night to watch the results from local, state and national elections.

Those at the Kennett headquarters quickly gathered their belongings and waited outside the office to learn more details about the incident, which elicited disappointment and confusion.  Hoffman later shared with the Chester County Press that she spoke to the head of security for the Harris campaign and stated that she felt the move to close the Kennett office was due to an “abundance of caution” from the Democratic party.

“While I do not regret taking action for safety, I am quite angry that we are living in this kind of threat environment,” she wrote after the incident.

Gerry Auman, assistant Zone 3 Leader for the OxGrove Democrats, shared that they closed their Jennersville headquarters at 8 p.m., unrelated to the threat, and did not receive any contact to evacuate. He also reported a smooth day of voting at all of the precincts in their region. Many counties across the country targeted in bomb threats were counties that voted for Joe Biden in the 2020 election, including Chester County. However, of the reported 32 Pennsylvania counties that received threats, only five voted for Biden in 2020.

While little is still known about the bomb threat, the FBI and local authorities are continuing to investigate, while local volunteers and voters are left grappling with the disappointment of the threat and what it means more broadly about the state’s Democratic state of being.

“We’ve worked really, really hard to try and get along with everybody and to really turn out our voters, and to have what I can only assume is people trying to put a kibosh on people peacefully gathering is not what this country is about,” Hoffman said.

To contact Contributing Writer Gabbie Burton, email [email protected].