US presidential race: 2 precincts in Georgia, North Carolina extend voting time

Two precincts in Georgia and North Carolina for voting in the US presidential election will remain open until 7.58 pm and 8 pm ET respectively (8.58 pm and 9 pm local time) after receiving bomb threats and reported technical issues earlier on Tuesday.

CNN has reported that Government Communications director Joe Sorenson said two precincts in Georgia – in Gwinnett County – will remain open until 7.58 pm ET after they received threats.

There are also two polling places in Cobb County that are permitted to stay open until 7.20 pm ET, a Georgia official said.

The extended polling hours would push back the one-hour window of when precincts must report results.

In North Carolina two precincts – one in Burke County in the state’s western region and one in Wilson County, east of Raleigh – will now close at 8 pm ET Tuesday.

The extra hour of voting comes as the precincts were temporarily unavailable due to technical issues.

Polls were supposed to close at 7 pm ET (8 pm local time) on November 5.

CNN said officials reported that the US election voting process has been going "smoothly" despite "non-credible" bomb threats of Russian origin and bad weather.

The CNN article last updated 7.16 pm local time said the bomb threats at a few Michigan and Georgia polling stations caused delays in voting as security officials had to clear the locations.

The threats “appear to originate from Russian email domains,” the FBI said midday on November 5.

“None of the threats have been determined to be credible thus far.”

A US official said Wisconsin also received threats apparently aimed at disrupting voting.