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| Photo Credit: AP. |
A team of computer experts allegedly copied data and software from a voting equipment in an apparent breach of a Georgia county election system.
The experts
traveled to South Georgia two months after the 2020 presidential election and
were greeted by the head of the local Republican Party involved in efforts by
former President Donald Trump to overturn his election defeat by President Joe
Biden, The Associated Press reported.
Footage from
a security camera outside the elections office in rural Coffee County which
captured their arrival also shows some local election officials who were at the
office in what the Georgia secretary of state office called “alleged
unauthorized access” of election equipment, according to The Associated Press.
Two weeks
later, security footage shows two people who were instrumental in Trump’s wider
efforts to undermine the election results entering the office and staying for
hours.
Footage also
shows how access was allegedly facilitated by local officials entrusted with
protecting the security of elections while raising concerns about the release
of sensitive voting technology into the public domain, according to The
Associated Press.
Voting equipment
was also compromised in election offices in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Colorado.
The Coffee
County security footage was obtained through a lawsuit filed against Georgia’s
election machines which alleges that the state’s touchscreen voting machines
are vulnerable to attack and should be replaced by hand-marked paper ballots,
according to The Associated Press.
Fulton
County District Attorney Fani Willis cited the Coffee County activity including
other concerns when she sought to compel testimony from Sidney Powell, an
attorney who was deeply involved in Trump’s effort to overturn the election
results in Georgia, The Associated Press reported.
Powell and
other attorneys linked to Trump helped arrange for a team from data solutions
company SullivanStrickler to travel to Coffee County, which Trump won by nearly
40 percentage points, The Associated Press cited emails and other records.
What was Cathy Latham former chair of the Coffee County Republican Party doing at Georgia election office?
Video
footage captures Cathy Latham, then chair of the Coffee County Republican Party
arriving at the elections office shortly after 11:30 a.m. on January 7, 2021, a
day after the violet siege on the U.S. Capitol by a group of Trump supporters,
according to The Associated Press.
Few weeks
earlier, she was one of 16 Georgia Republicans who signed a certificate falsely
stating that Trump had won the state and declaring that they were the state’s “duly
elected and qualified” electors, according to The Associated Press.
Latham was
seen outside few minutes after her arrival greeting SullivanStrickler Chief
Operating Officer Paul Maggio and two other people. She then escorted two other
men into the building less than 10 minutes later.
The video
also shows her departure from the elections office just before 1:30 p.m.,
roughly two hours after greeting the SullivanStrickler team. She returns after
4 p.m. and then leaves around 6:15 p.m.
In a
deposition under oath in August, Latham said she stopped by the elections
office that evening for “Just a few minutes” and left before 5 p.m. She said
she couldn’t recall visiting the facility earlier in the day, noting that her
schedule as a teacher would not have allowed it when pressed.