Law enforcement agencies prepared for unrest beyond Election Day

Law enforcement officials say they're prepared to deal with unrest on Election Day, but expect the threat to continue in the days that follow.

"It is more likely that in the aftermath of the election results and the counting of the Electoral College votes, that individuals who believe that the election was rigged, stolen, or unfairly decided could decide to conduct lone offender or lone wolf attacks in response," said Javed Ali, the former senior counterterrorism coordinator at the National Security Council and now an associate professor at the University of Michigan's Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy.

"The two attempted attacks against former President Trump this summer suggest the potential for this remains high, and detecting the signs of an individual's radicalization or mobilization to violent action remains amongst the most difficult challenges for federal, state, and local law enforcement here in the United States."

How to watch ABC News live coverage of 2024 election results.

Election workers across the country are being bombarded with threats and law enforcement agencies nationwide are dedicating "substantial resources" to ensure public safety during the election, a new threat assessment obtained by ABC News says.

The document, transmitted Monday by the New York Police Department Intelligence Bureau, encapsulates the full picture of threats to Election Day, including the risk of physical violence and disinformation generated by foreign governments. Potential targets include "election personnel and government officials, campaign offices, as well as voting-related sites, infrastructure, and technology," the assessment said.

Follow the latest election-related security issues and legal challenges.

A Capitol Police intelligence assessment released earlier this month and obtained by ABC News warns of a heightened threat to government officials and election-related sites, increasing "the likelihood of violence and civil unrest around the 2025 Electoral Vote Certification and the Presidential Inauguration."

The report released earlier this month says that threats rose significantly after Election Day four years ago and Capitol Police anticipates that trend will repeat in 2024.

Capitol Police reported a surge in social media posts alleging that the election will be "stolen." It noted that foreign influence efforts to spread conspiracies to undermine, manipulate, and tamper confidence in the electoral process "could exacerbate existing political tensions."

The FBI on Tuesday said there have been 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, the FBI said.

In Washington, D.C., where Vice President Kamala Harris will have her election night rally at Howard University, the Metropolitan Police Department says there are no credible threats for election week, but that MPD is "fully activated" with help from neighboring Virginia and Maryland.

The National Guard Bureau is tracking multiple states and providing support to state agencies during the election, a bureau official said.

As of Tuesday morning, 252 National Guard members were activated in 15 states, and another 87 were on standby in three states and Washington, D.C.

In addition, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the cyber arm of the Department of Homeland Security, is tracking threats against election officials, a top CISA official told ABC News.

"As a nation, this is something that we should absolutely condemn and disavow and is fundamentally un-American," Cait Conley, who is in charge of CISA's election security portfolio told, reporters on a call.

Election officials in battleground states are operating under heightened security.

Arizona

Four polling locations in Navajo County, Arizona, received unsubstantiated bomb threats that Secretary of State Adrian Fontes says his office has reason to believe are from Russia, but that hasn't been confirmed.

"I don't know that I'm at liberty to reveal anything more than my solid suspicion grounded in information that I don't know that I can share yet," Fontes said.

No polling locations were closed because of the threats, Fontes said.

Georgia

Two voting locations in Fulton County, Georgia, which encompasses the Atlanta area, were evacuated Tuesday morning for about 30 minutes after officials there received five "non-credible" bomb threats, Elections Director Nadine Williams said. The county is working on going to court to extend the hours for those locations, she said.

"All polling sites are secure with an active security presence," Williams said.

On Monday, the Justice Department charged a poll worker in Jones County, Georgia, with sending a letter threatening to bomb an elections office last month.

Nicholas Wimbish, 25, allegedly sent the threat after he had a verbal argument with a voter on Oct. 16, prosecutors said.

The following day, he mailed a letter to the Jones County elections superintendent purported to be from the unidentified voter saying Wimbish had "given me hell" and was "conspiring votes" and "distracting voters from concentrating."

The letter said Wimbish and others "should look over their shoulder" and that the "young men will get beatdown if they fight me" and "will get the treason punishment by firing squad if they fight back."

Wimbish faces several charges including mailing a bomb threat, conveying false information about a bomb threat, and making false statements to the FBI. He faces a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison.

Michigan

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said election officials there are "prepared for anything."

"I'm really again hopeful that we'll see a peaceful Election Day, both during the voting process and after the polls close, but we are prepared for anything, and we have multiple partners and even have done scenario-planning exercises all across the state to be ready for anything that could transpire." she said. Her office has about 100 people throughout state "in case anything occurs," and they are ready to work with law enforcement and the state attorney general's office to either "deescalate or mitigate" any situations that come up.

North Carolina

In North Carolina, the state's elections director pled for a peaceful transfer of power and for people to accept the results.

"Please treat others with dignity and respect," said Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the state's board of elections."

Pennsylvania

And in Pennsylvania the Philadelphia district attorney issued a stern warning.

"Anybody who thinks they are going to play those games in Philadelphia, you're going to do it in bad faith -- I got no problem with doing it in good faith -- but, if you're going to do it in bad faith, there is an election court, there are judges, they have orders and, those orders are going to say, in essence, 'Get out of the polling places,'" DA Larry Krasner said. "Anybody who doesn't get out, you're going to be arrested."

"F around and find out," he added.

ABC News' Matthew Seyler contributed reporting.