Pa. decertifies Fulton County's voting system after audit

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Bedford Gazette

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania’s top election official has decertified the voting machines of a small southern county that disclosed that it had agreed to requests by local Republican lawmakers and allowed a software firm to inspect the machines as part of an “audit” after the 2020 election. The action by Acting Secretary of State Veronica Degraffenreid almost certainly means that Fulton County will have to buy or lease new voting machines.The lawmakers’ request for the “audit” came amid former President Donald Trump’s baseless claims that the 2020 election was rigged against him in Pennsylvania and other battleground states.

Degraffenreid notified Fulton County officials in a letter Tuesday that the inspection violated state law. It was done in a manner that “was not transparent or bipartisan” and the firm had “no knowledge or expertise in election technology,” Degraffenreid wrote. “I have no other choice but to decertify the use of Fulton County’s leased Dominion Democracy Suite 5.5A voting system last used in the November 2020 election,” Degraffenreid wrote. Pennsylvania’s election law gives counties the duty to “maintain proper chain of custody” of ballots and voting systems, requirements that ensure that any election is conducted transparently and that does not compromise voting systems, Degraffenreid wrote. Voting systems that pass anti-tampering tests are certified by states.

The U.S. Election Assistance commission accredits labs to test voting machines and provides guidance to states on how to maintain a chain of custody over voting systems. Degraffenreid made the decision as several counties in Pennsylvania are pushing back against pressure from some Republican state lawmakers and their allies to provide access to their voting systems for a “forensic investigation.” In May, Fulton County wrote to Degraffenreid to say that, under the supervision of the county’s information technology director, employees of the West Chester-based software company Wake TSI took backups of data on computers used in ballot-counting, “complete hard drive images” of the computers and ”complete images” of two thumb drives that had been used on election night to transfer results files.

As a result of that access, neither Fulton County nor 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,” Degraffenreid wrote. Fewer than 8,000 people in Fulton County voted in the 2020 election, backing Trump by almost seven-to-one over Democrat Joe Biden. Biden went on to win Pennsylvania by more than 80,000 votes. Fulton County officials did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment. One of the Republican lawmakers who represents part of Fulton County, state Sen. Judy Ward, R-Blair, declined comment Wednesday.


Read more: https://www.bedfordgazette.com/ap/politics/pa-decertifies-fulton-countys-voting-system-after-audit/article_ba78c15d-cf4b-5cbe-9be5-6d3edba37d71.html

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Wow. I stumbled on what happened here when looking for some COVID-related stuff.

They really kept this "hush hush" and buried under other stuff.

[BumRushDaShow]

2. Probably a practice run with a tiny county

so they would know how the process is done and could then attempt to force the fraudulent "audit" on the 3 counties that the loon Mastriano has targeted and demanded have his "audit" done (one of the counties is here - Philadelphia).

Two of the counties already told Mastriano to pound sand. Philly hasn't responded yet - they all have until July 31st (they are probably ignoring him). I expect the city will eventually give Mastriano their best, polished "fuck you" type of response.

[MyOwnPeace]

6. Like 'BumRush' stated - part of a larger plan.....

Also, these were likely small-town Repukes trying to get their way into the line to kiss TFG's giant A$$ in a show of support to him, the state Repukes, and the YUUUUGE 8,000 members of the local party.

[bucolic_frolic]

3. They create the election fraud by illegally looking for election fraud

[TheRealNorth]

4. I wonder if any of the code is proprietary.....

Dominion could be missing an opportunity to sue more people.

[displacedtexan]

5. Why do I suspect these "audits" are more about stealing voters' personal info

than merely trying to overturn the 2020 election?

[bigworld]

7. The ability to blackmail someone voting for Biden in a place like Fulton County

is real. I suspect much of the same might apply in Arizona.

I think not enough attention is being paid attention to the ability to see who voted for whom.

[dflprincess]

15. Not sure that a voting machine would contain any personal info

It may have more to do with damaging the maching or thinking they can insert a chip that will miscount ballots and throw electionsn to the Trumplicans.

[twodogsbarking]

8. Fulton County population less than 15k.

I would guess it is less each year.

[BumRushDaShow]

10. Yup

Good place to do a "test run" of an audit of "x" number of machines/amount of voters, which was probably targeted to be the equivalent of that county's voter data.

I know both York and Tioga Counties have refused Mastriano's "audit" nonsense and I am sure the Philly Commissioners will provide the final coup de grace to him by the deadline.

[riversedge]

9. Its a pipe dream but the "local Republican lawmakers" should dish out the cash for new machines!

[TNNurse]

11. The cost of replacing the machines should be included with a message

when they pay their taxes.

[GETPLANING]

12. Let's audit Kentucky.

See Republican hypocrisy on steroids.

[DENVERPOPS]

13. I would LOVE to see

an Audit of the 2020 election in So. Carolina, Kentucky, Maine.

Every state/county still using the old EIS machines should be HIGHLY SUSPECT of Republican voting machine/computer voter fraud.

As I remember, some of the last minute polling of those states was much closer than the final Republican Votes in the election.

[gab13by13]

14. I agree,

do Florida too.

[DENVERPOPS]

16. Every single one of those states

were on Trumps/Putins highest level mandatory "to do" list. If Putin screwed with the federal election, he most assuredly could have EASILY screwed with those states and any other states with the EIS machines left over from W Bush's/Cheney's corrupt voting machine "appointment" to president.

I feel the distraction in other states voting was purely devised to take any and all attention away from auditing those states votes for Senators.

Early on in his administration, Trump/Republicans very effectively completely neutered the FEC, so I don't know who would have done the investigation.....The Republican controlled Senate wouldn't have allowed an investigation anyway, that's for certain....

WASF

[Karma13612]

17. Agree 100% nt