Georgia secretary of state plans to replace voting equipment in county where data was breached

By Jason Morris, CNN

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced on Friday that his office is replacing the voting equipment in Coffee County following “unauthorized access” of its election system after the 2020 presidential election.

Installation of the new voting equipment will begin on Monday and is expected to be completed in a day, according to Mike Hassinger, a spokesperson with Raffensperger’s office. After the equipment is installed, it will be tested and ready in time for early voting in the 2022 midterm, Hassinger told CNN.

The election equipment is being replaced “following the unauthorized access to the equipment that former Coffee County election officials allowed in violation of Georgia law,” according to Raffensperger’s office.

As CNN previously reported, operatives working with an attorney for former President Donald Trump spent hours inside a restricted area of the Coffee County elections office in early 2021.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is currently assisting the Georgia secretary of state’s office with an investigation into the breach of the election data.

“To allay the fears being stoked by perennial election deniers and conspiracy theorists, we’re replacing Coffee County’s election machines,” Raffensperger said in a written statement. “The investigation into the former Coffee County election officials who allowed the unauthorized access continues, and anyone who broke the law should be punished to its full extent.”

Newly obtained surveillance video showed a Republican county official in Georgia remained in the Coffee County elections office while the operatives worked on computers near election equipment and proceeded to access voting data.

Former GOP chairwoman of Coffee County Cathy Latham, who is under criminal investigation for posing as a fake elector in 2020, escorted the operatives working with former Trump lawyer Sidney Powell through the front door of the elections office on January, 7, 2021, CNN has previously reported.

Latham has said she was not “personally involved” in the breach, but the new footage appears to undercut her claims.

This story has been updated with additional details Friday.

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CNN’s Zachary Cohen contributed to this report.