Dominion voting machines in Fulton County, Pennsylvania were “retired” this week. This comes after an investigation conducted by software firm Wake TSI (the same company hired to audit voting machines in Maricopa County, AZ).
“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,” said Acting Secretary of the Commonwealth Veronica Degraffenreid.
Wake TSI’s investigation was conducted at the behest of GOP State Senator Doug Mastriano. Like other Republicans, he expressed concerns regarding election integrity in the state of Pennsylvania.
Lawmakers had requested the audit “to prove to the voters that the 2020 General Election was run appropriately.”
Employees of Wake TSI promised not to “disturb or manipulate” election equipment during the audit. And they were watched by county elections officials at all times.
Even so, Degraffenreid told reporters the audit was “not transparent or bipartisan.”
She also claimed Wake TSI had “no knowledge or expertise in election technology.”
Degraffenreid said the investigation violated a state law requiring any and all voting machines testing be conducted by a federally accredited lab. Wake TSI is not federally accredited.
According to the Associated Press, the Dominion voting machines were decertified simply because a third party had been given access to them and not because the machines were faulty. Republican lawmakers urged Degraffenreid to reconsider and said the machines should be safe to use for the next election.
“[The Dominion voting machines] were decertified because the chain of custody was broken and commissioners turned them over to the third party, that being Wake TSI,” said Pennsylvania Department of State spokeswoman Wanda Murren. Because of that, we cannot say with absolute certainty that those machines are secure now.”
Authors Note: This is a petty move from a Democrat (Degraffenreid) who is annoyed by Republicans’ attempts to investigate claims of election interference.
Fulton County chose Trump over Biden with a final vote of 85.5% to 13.6%. The state is said to have voted for Biden by a margin of just 1.2% (equal to 81,660 votes).