Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano told Newsmax that acting Secretary of State Veronica Degraffenried's decision to decertify voting machines in Fulton County, and threatening to do the same in other counties that permit a forensic audit of the 2020 election, was the work of a ''Third World thug.''
''On the heels of my asking for three counties to support forensic investigation, our Secretary of State Degraffenreid, of course, issued a threatening statement saying, if any county complies, we're going to decertify your machines,'' Mastriano said Friday on ''The Chris Salcedo Show.'' ''Now you're talking about costs of $1 million for these counties. That's very significant. That's followed on the heels, additionally, then against Fulton County, who willingly submitted to an audit last winter and now, without knowing if the machines were touched at all, Degraffenreid doesn't care and just wants to send a message to the rest of the state like some Third World thug, that we're going to decertify your machines, so you better not comply with Mastriano's constitutional request.''
On Wednesday, Degraffenreid notified the Fulton County Board of Elections that she was decertifying the machines there because they took part in an audit earlier this year and said they could not be trusted to be used in elections going forward.
"I have a statutory obligation to examine, evaluate and certify electronic voting systems," Degraffenreid said in a July 20 letter to the county. "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."
She accused the county of allowing Wake TSI, the auditing firm, to have access to the machines and ''key components,'' including the county's voter database, results files and Windows system logs, without having any election technology ''knowledge or expertise.''
"These actions were taken in a manner that was not transparent," she said in her letter. "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."
Mastriano said Degraffenreid did this to ''send a message'' to other counties that may have been willing to conduct an audit, threatening punishment if they complied.
''This is not about ‘ensuring the machines continue to meet standards,' as the Acting Secretary stated,'' Mastriano said in a July 21 statement. ''This is about sending a message to counties who dare to be transparent about their election process. That message is very clear: Any county who has the audacity to partner with the General Assembly to demonstrate that their elections were secure and accurate will be punished.''
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