Election security updates: Voting hours extended in Pennsylvania county
Election security updates: Voting hours extended in Pennsylvania county
    Posted on 11/06/2024
The FBI arrested a man in Michigan who allegedly posted threats online saying he would carry out a mass shooting on conservative Christians in the event former President Donald Trump wins the 2024 election, according to newly unsealed charging documents.

Isaac Sissel was taken into custody yesterday in Canton, Michigan, just two days after law enforcement reviewed his online posting.

The criminal complaint says Reddit had previously reported Sissel to the FBI in late September over various accounts he had with threatening usernames, including, "ShootUpTrulyRally" "WillShootTrumpSoon," "PlannigToShootTrump" and "PlanningToKillTrump."

Law enforcement contacted Sissel yesterday at a Travelodge hotel in Canton and found no weapons in a consented search of his room, though the affidavit notes "this was not surprising given that SISSEL stated [in his online post] that he 'hid the gun.'"

Sissel further told agents Trump "was a threat...that should have been assassinated, and that everything would be better if Trump was dead," the affidavit says. While he said he wouldn't personally assassinate Trump, he told agents he believed there would be violence during the election "and wouldn't rule out joining Antifa to protest."

Sissel, according to the affidavit, is a transient who has more recently lived around the University of Michigan campus and has several open warrants for his arrest on charges of stalking, harassment and harassing communications.

The arrest underscores the FBI's aggressive response to counter a wave of violent threats surrounding the presidential election, particularly in the wake of the two assassination attempts targeting Trump. In the affidavit, the FBI specifically noted Trump's plans to appear in Michigan for a rally late Monday.

According to his court docket, Sissel has not been arraigned and has not entered a plea to the charge as of Tuesday afternoon. He has not yet been assigned an attorney.

-ABC News' Alexander Mallin

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner said that while he believes behavior at the polls has been "a little bit more aggressive," no arrests have been made in the city.

Matt Stiegler, senior adviser to the DA, said the office is "monitoring" reports of voters recording poll workers. Stiegler said the DA has gathered these from media reports, but he wouldn't say whether poll workers have reported cases of being recorded.

"Hidden camera recording of election workers and voters and poll workers, that's not normal," Stiegler said. "If that's occurring, then that's a significant escalation of what's happened in the past."

Krasner said his office has seen no indications of voter fraud. Any irregularities, however, would likely not be reported until later in the evening, he noted.

"We do not have reports of anything that looks like voter fraud...We do not expect to have it, but if it's there, we want to know about it. We don't want to hear a bunch of crazy fiction later about how things happen," he said.

"If we start to hear about it at nine o'clock after the polls are closed, you should be rightly suspicious of what you are hearing."

DA Krasner repeated his warning yesterday that consequences would be in order for lawbreakers.

"There are handcuffs, there are cells, there are courtrooms, and there are Philadelphia jurors who are definitely going to want to know why it is a person tried to erase their votes, block their votes, bully their votes, or take away their votes," he said. "We're voting in Philly. We're voting our conscience. We're voting for whoever is our favorite candidate."

-ABC News' Chris Boccia

Georgia's top election official on Tuesday morning projected confidence that the critical battleground state will have the large majority of its election results available tonight, saying that election day in the state has been "smooth sailing by and large" and a "tremendous" day.

Specifically on timing, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said that the state's 4 million early votes as well absentee ballots will be uploaded and reported no later than one hour after the polls close, which for most locations will be 7 p.m.

"So by 8 p.m., you'll have probably 99% of all that ... so you get a good idea of what the race looks like," he said.

With regards to votes from today, Raffensperger said "before the end of the night, you'll have all of that." He noted smaller counties are aiming to have all of their results in by 10/1030 p.m. "at the latest."

Notably, Raffensperger was also asked about bomb threats made Tuesday, which he said were "of Russian origin."

"We identified the source and it was from Russia," he said, after hedging briefly on the source.

"They're up to mischief it seems," he said of Russia: "They're not our friends anyone who thinks they are hasn't been reading the newspaper."

Raffensperger said he thinks they will pass 1 million votes today, and said they are ready for any litigation to come their way.

"We're gonna follow the law, follow the Constitution, and report the results accurately."

-ABC News' Olivia Rubin
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