In order to conduct a criminal investigation into a system breach in Coffee County, the Georgia State Election Board has called the FBI for assistance. The board called attention to similar breaches in other jurisdictions and requested assistance from the FBI in its investigation into correspondence between Spalding County, Georgia, authorities and SullivanStrickler, according to the Independent.
A “unexecuted engagement agreement” for SullivanStrickler to forensically scan voting systems in Spalding County, Georgia, has been provided to the board in documents, according to Duffey. It is now being questioned whether the same group of people who were involved in the Coffee County breach also attempted to gain access to voting systems in other regions of the state as a result of the action, which is an expansion of state investigators’ inquiries in Georgia.
Duffey stated that the reason Spalding County was interested in having SullivanStrickler carry out this type of work is still unknown, but the board is looking into whether there is a connection to what happened in Coffee County. Furthermore, it is unknown if the voting machines in Spalding County were compromised. Duffey said he has requested the FBI for an update on the progress of its involvement in the state-level Georgia investigation involving Coffee County, but he is not of what, if anything, the bureau is doing at the moment.
According to William Duffey Jr., chairman of the elections board, “the behavior in Coffee County is comparable to that in Antrim County, Michigan, and Clark County, Nevada.”
A SullivanStrickler lawyer stated, “We did not image any equipment in Spalding County. “As with previous investigations, we will continue to cooperate with law enforcement.”
Just two months after the 2020 election, there was “unauthorized access” to the county’s voting machinery, prompting officials to replace the system.
The investigation into the unlawful access by former election officials with Coffee County is still ongoing, according to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. In a news release, he stated that “anyone who disobeyed the law should be punished to the utmost extent.” But the present Coffee County election officials must proceed with the 2022 election, and they ought to be free to do so without being hindered by this issue.
