Workers at three Manhattan polling sites received emails threatening a terror attack Tuesday — but an NYPD source said investigators believe it’s part of a hoax to drum up fear on Election Day.
No polling sites have been shut down, the source said, with voting continuing as the NYPD and federal authorities try to figure out who is behind the emails.
The emails were sent between 6 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. to the Board of Elections and were opened by polling site workers in Harlem, Greenwich Village and Midtown East, the source said.
The emails did not reference any of the three leading mayoral candidates.
“We believe it’s an elaborate swatting attempt,” the NYPD source said. “The emails make terroristic threats.”
Vincent Ignizio, the Bord of Election’s deputy executive director, said he was aware of one email, not three, forwarded to the board as a heads up rather than as a threat. He said he had been told the threat was being deemed “not credible” by the NYPD.
Swatting is a form of cyber harassment designed to trigger a major law enforcement response to a phony emergency or threat, such as a mass shooting.
Multiple bomb threats were made Tuesday morning to various polling sites in New Jersey, where a gubernatorial election is taking place. All were ultimately determined unfounded.
Democratic mayoral front-runner Zohran Mamdani was asked after voting in Astoria early Tuesday about the threats across the Hudson.
“It’s incredibly concerning, and I think that it is an illustration of the attacks we’re seeing on our democracy,” Mamdani said of the New Jersey threats.