Pennsylvania decertified the voting machines in Fulton County after local officials complied with a GOP-backed audit and allowed third party investigators to access the machines’ data.
Acting Secretary of State Veronica Degraffenreid informed Fulton County officials that they must get rid of the county’s Dominion Democracy Suite 5.5A voting system, which was used in the 2020 presidential election, because state Republicans’ hired investigator gained access to the system’s “election database, results files, and Windows system logs.”
Degraffenreid claimed the independent investigator, software company Wake TSI, has “no knowledge or expertise in election technology,” which means the ballot hardware must now be treated as if it is “compromised,” she added.
“These actions were taken in a manner that was not transparent or bipartisan,” Degraffenreid wrote in a letter to county officials. “As a result of the access granted to Wake TSI, Fulton County’s certified system has been compromised and neither Fulton County; the vendor, Dominion Voting Systems; nor the Department of State can verify that the impacted components of Fulton County’s leased voting system are safe to use in future elections.”
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Wake TSI was contracted by a nonprofit group run by pro-Trump attorney Sidney Powell and found that the election in Fulton County was “well run” and “conducted in a diligent and effective manner.”
However, the company also stressed that this does not mean “there were no issues with the election, just that they were not the fault of the County Election Commission or County Election Director.”
Degraffenreid dismissed Wake TSI’s findings and warned other counties in the state that they would face similar consequences if they complied with GOP-backed audits.
“Please know that I did not arrive at this decision lightly,” Degraffenreid said in the letter. “I have a statutory obligation to examine, evaluate and certify electronic voting systems. These reviews include verifying that the voting system conforms to federal and state law and any regulations or standards regarding confidentiality, security, accuracy, safety, reliability, usability, accessibility, durability, resiliency, and auditability.”
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