US election offices received bomb threats: officials

Several Maryland boards of elections and an office in a county in California received bomb threats, state authorities say, adding everyone was safe and law enforcement authorities were investigating.

Election officials were counting mail-in ballots when the threats came in Maryland on Friday.

State Administrator of Elections Jared DeMarinis said some buildings were evacuated.

He called the threats "cowardly", adding local officials would resume counting on Saturday.

"Safety is a top concern - but we WILL resume canvassing tomorrow. Cowardly threats whether from abroad or not shall not deter us," DeMarinis said on social media platform X.

"The Baltimore County Police Department is aware and currently investigating the bomb threat received via email by the Baltimore County Board of Elections Office," police posted on X, later adding that a probe found that threat unfounded.

In California's Orange County, the registrar of voters received a bomb threat at an office in Santa Ana after which the office building was evacuated and bomb detection dogs were used to search.

No explosives were located, officials said, adding normal operations would resume on Saturday.

The offices of California Governor Gavin Newsom and Maryland Governor Wes Moore said they were monitoring the situations and working with local officials.

Republican Donald Trump defeated Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in Tuesday's presidential election.

Counting continued in parts of the country in local, congressional and presidential races.

The FBI said that hoax bomb threats, many of which appeared to originate from Russian email domains, were directed on Tuesday at polling locations in five battleground states - Georgia, Michigan, Arizona, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania - as election day voting was under way.

Russia denies interfering in US elections.

Ahead of the elections, officials had braced for attacks and threats arising from misinformation and conspiracy theories about the vote.