While the emailed bomb threat went to all 67 counties and was determined to be a hoax by state agencies, officials in Carbon County say their response was to ensure the safety of the public and employees.

Early Wednesday morning, Carbon County election staff discovered an email from an unknown person claiming to have a bomb somewhere inside the election office.

At that time, the election mail-in ballot count was paused and the building evacuated until law enforcement could arrive and clear the building.

Sheriff Dan Zeigler said Wednesday afternoon that “we always err on the side of caution here and we do everything we can to keep the public, as well as our employees safe.”

“That’s why we took these other steps,” he added, noting that state police and a bomb-sniffing dog was called in to help in the investigation of the threat.

“I don’t know what other counties did in regards to their response ... but we take these threats very seriously and we’re always going to investigate them to the fullest and work with our law enforcement partners just to make sure.”

Law enforcement went through the building and cleared every floor before election staff, located on the first floor of 44 Susquehanna St., was allowed to reenter to finish processing mail-in ballots.

Zeigler said that at the time, state police told him they were investigating approximately 26 other threats that had been received by other counties in the same manner.

He later learned that the emails went to all 67 counties in the state.

“It was pretty widespread,” he said.

Zeigler thanked county officials, the Carbon County Emergency Management Agency coordinator, Jim Thorpe police and fire departments and state police for helping in the investigation.

“I think it was a really good example of how all of our agencies here in the county work together,” he said.

Both Gov. Josh Shapiro and state Attorney General Michelle Henry have noted that the bomb threats are being investigated on the state level and that there was no threat to the public.