Georgia delivers rapid election results despite bomb threats, Secretary of State says

The day after the election, Georgia's Secretary of State said voting was smooth and steady and the results came in quickly. 

"We were reporting results when other states were still out there closing polls or waiting, waiting, waiting," said Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. 

Raffensperger says Georgia had one of, if not the, fastest election results in the country. He attributes that to new rules he helped put in place.

"I made sure the general assembly put into law all those early votes, turned out to be close to 70% and 5% absentee, were all uploaded by 8 p.m.," said Raffensperger. 

There have also been changes that helped speed up voting for the record-breaking number of Georgians who cast their ballots. 

"I led all the initiatives we had through the general assembly to make sure lines were shorter than one hour. Then, we added in the electronic poll pass which had them check-in at 49 seconds," said Raffensperger.

It wasn't all smooth sailing. Just a few hours after the polls opened, reports of bomb threats at precincts across metro Atlanta started coming in. 

"When it happened earlier, people weren't really sure," said Raffensperger. 

Law enforcement responded, and some locations were evacuated.

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By the end of the night, about 60 threats had been made. The FBI became involved and determined the threats were not credible. 

"The FBI confirmed it is Russian-based. By that point, everyone knew they were fake and it was just someone trying to create mischief," said Raffensperger.

Despite the threats, voting continued, ballots were counted, and Raffensperger said within just three hours after the polls closed, he knew which presidential candidate would win Georgia. 

"By 10 p.m., I knew the race was over and that President Trump was going to be the victor," said Raffensperger.

The Source: This is an original report by FOX 5 Atlanta's Denise Dillon.