Pennsylvania decertifies county's voting machines after 2020 election audit
21 July 2021
Pennsylvania's acting Secretary of States Veronica Degraffenreid announced Wednesday she has decertified Fulton County voting equipment following an audit request of the 2020 presidential election.
Why it matters: The appeal came from a state lawmakers who supported former President Trump's baseless claims about the presidential election result.
- Pennsylvania is the second state to have decertified an election system because of dubious audit requests by pro-Trump Republicans, after Maricopa County, per the Washington Post.
What they're saying: Degraffenreid's office said in a statement that Fulton County officials had "allowed Wake TSI, a company with no knowledge or expertise in election technology, to access certain key components of its certified system, including the county's election database, results files, and Windows systems logs."
- "The county officials also allowed the company to use a system imaging tool to take complete hard drive images of these computers and other digital equipment."
Of note: WashPost obtained a county document showing that Wake TSI was "'contracted' to a nonprofit group run by Sidney Powell, a pro-Trump lawyer."
- "Wake TSI submitted a draft report in February saying the election had been 'well run' and 'conducted in a diligent and effective manner,' county documents show."
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.