Voting was halted for about three hours on Tuesday, when a bomb was found outside a polling place in Iowa, officials said.
A couple walking their dog found the device just before 9:30 am outside the Lakeside Center, a multifunctional building in Ankeny, said police and Polk County auditor and election commissioner Jamie Fitzgerald.
Located about 15 miles north of downtown Des Moines, the center was one of 14 locations in Ankeny where voters voted for a measure of spending on local schools.
Voting at the Lakeside Center was halted while officials were working to protect the explosive, which had a fuse and could not be detonated remotely, the police sergeant from Ankeny. Corey Schneben said.
Voters and election officials were forced to evacuate the building, and a bomb squad from the state fireman’s office was called to the scene.
Authorities suspended the evacuation order and voting resumed after the device was safely detonated, but no arrests were made immediately in connection with the incident.
Officials said they did not believe the explosive was linked to Tuesday’s vote.
“We have no indication of that,” Schneben told NBC News. “Usually, in an election like this, you can get about a thousand people to vote for it. It wasn’t like a big headline in the newspaper saying this (election) was going on.”
The explosive was made from a CPVC tube, about 6 to 8 inches long and 1 1/2 inches in diameter, two caps and explosive dust inside, according to Ron Humphrey, the special agent responsible for the State Fire Department from Iowa.
“If someone were between 6 and 15 meters, there would have been some kind of injury, but other than that, it wasn’t that big,” said Humphrey on Wednesday.
It was not clear how long the device was there, as about a dozen voters had to be directed to other polling stations, Fitzgerald said.
Although no one was hurt on Tuesday, US Representative Cindy Axne, D-Iowa, said the incident was still worrying.
“I am deeply concerned that a bomb was found at a polling station in Ankeny today,” she said in a tweet on Tuesday. “This threat to our elections is unacceptable and those responsible must be held responsible for this attempt at violence against our democracy and its citizens.”
Measure AA, which asked voters whether the Ankney Community School District should spend on various capital and infrastructure improvements, went from 1,298 to 172.
Fitzgerald thanked the dog walkers who spotted the explosive near a street lamp near the downtown parking lot and told the election team.
“It’s good that everyone is watching and saying something,” said Fitzgerald.
