Fayette, Morgan, and Spalding counties in the spotlight

Georgia’s Dominion Voting Systems machines in one county were updated in the weeks leading up to the Nov. 3 presidential election, a state official confirmed during Georgia Senate Government Oversight Committee meeting about election integrity on Dec. 3.

Ryan Germany, general counsel for the Georgia secretary of state’s (SOS) office, made the remarks in response to a question from Republican state Sen. Marty Harbin about allegations that Dominion machines in Fayette County had been updated on Nov. 2, the day before the election.

“I understand in one of the precincts that represents in my district, that on the day before the election, there were updates being done to the machines—because of the Senate race with 24 candidates, the machine was having problems in printing,” Harbin, who represents the 16th Georgia State Senate district, asked Germany at the hearing.

“Is that a true statement, that those were being updated on the day before the election? I understood that there were people coming in with USB drives to update machines the day before the election,” he added.

Germany confirmed that Dominion machines in the state were updated before Election Day “to handle how that Senate race appeared” after logic and accuracy testing in Georgia resulted in Dominion Voting Systems finding a “one in a million” error.

“In Georgia, we have really robust logic and accuracy testing to make sure that before the election, the machines work like they’re supposed to,” Germany said. “They [Dominion] found something, a one in a million thing that they found.”

“We were able to put in a fix for that to make sure it didn’t happen. It was not the day before the election, it was a couple of weeks at least … I can get you the exact date, but no, nothing would have been changed the night before the election,” he told the hearing.

Georgia officials in late September discovered a problem relating to the displays for the U.S. Senate race during pre-election testing of Dominion’s voting system. Officials found that under certain circumstances, not all of the candidates’ names would fit properly on a single screen.

Dominion then embarked on a software modification to address the problem, which required testing validation from company Pro V&V as the software had now been changed across the Dominion systems.

The same firm was recently hired by Georgia’s secretary of state to conduct an audit of the Dominion Voting Systems technology used during the 2020 election, and has a preexisting relationship with Dominion that dates back years. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger did not disclose the preexisting relationship in his Nov. 17 statement announcing the results of the audit.

The audit, Raffensperger said, found that there was “no sign of foul play,” and that “Pro V&V found no evidence” of tampering with the machines.

Dominion Voting Systems has previously denied allegations that unauthorized or “last-minute” software updates took place before Election Day.

“Claims about software updates being done the night before Election Day are 100% false. Our voting systems are designed and certified by the U.S. government to be closed and do not rely on network connectivity,” Dominion said in a recent statement. “Both Spalding County and the Georgia Secretary of State have verified that a) this type of unauthorized update is impossible, and b) the actual logs from equipment under the custody of the County determined an update did not happen the night before the election.”

Supervisor Marcia Ridley of the Spalding County Board of Elections meanwhile has asserted that Dominion Voting Systems told her office last month that a technological glitch—which saw Morgan and Spalding counties experience a computer “glitch” in their electronic poll books used to sign off voters—was created by an update the night before the election, Politico reported.

Germany told the hearing on Thursday that this update was not done the night before Election Day. “We’ve went back and checked. It’s not true … I’m not really sure why she said that,” he said.

The computer “glitch” prevented voters from casting ballots on voting machines on Nov. 3 for several hours, local election officials told the news outlet.

Ridley hasn’t responded to requests for comment by The Epoch Times on the matter. Harbin didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Germany also pushed back against allegations that ballots were counted numerous times by the Dominion machines. On Wednesday, a Dominion Voting Systems contractor who worked at Detroit’s TCF Center on Election Day testified before the Michigan House Oversight Committee that she witnessed at least 30,000 ballots being counted numerous times in Dominion machines.

“There have been allegations of that in Michigan, so one thing that I think was good about Secretary Raffensperger ordering the audit of the presidential election, the fact that that hand count of each ballot almost exactly matched the machine count, proves that didn’t happen,” Germany said in the hearing.

Use of Dominion systems by states across the country have come under scrutiny. Texas officials in January rejected the company’s ballot-counting software because of concerns over whether the system “is suitable for its intended purpose; operates efficiently and accurately; and is safe from fraudulent or unauthorized manipulation.”

Dominion has not responded yet to a request from The Epoch Times for comment and declined to appear before a state legislative hearing when requested.

Jeff Carlson contributed to this report.

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