Page 2 - Spaulding County News Today

Reporting on the ground for us. ryan mentions georgia. in georgia, one death has so far been confirmed. a 5-year-old was killed after a tree fell on top of a car. dare van damme is in griffin, georgia, with a look at the damage there. derek, what are you seeing? >> reporter: tragically, the one fatality in state of georgia was in an adjacent county to where i am now, in spaulding county. it was likely part of the same tornado that cycled up and down causing the destruction you see behind me. w...

Us. ryan, look at that. >> reporter: it is just devastating behind us. and i couldel tell you, in the close county, they have found more bodies but havent been able to update us. theyre doing surveys across the state. but we want to show you how powerful this storm was. im six feet tall. look at this metal wraps all over this tree like it is an ornament. this is what were seeing, signs of destruction all over this city. we are on broad street, which is the main street here in downtown selma. and...

Experiencing tornados across the country. from california to illinois, here in georgia weve had three days where weve reported tornados including here yesterday. now in spaulding county, there were four middle schools that sheltered in place during this tragedy that swept through here during the afternoon and evening hours. the students had to stay within their schools until the authorities deemed it safe enough for the buses to ship they are home. so that occurred after midnight last night. it ...

Arizona has referred a case of voter intimidation in maricopa county. they were accused of being mules or someone who stuffs ballot boxes. >> theyre taking pictures of them and regardless of what the intent is of these people who are taking pictures of our elections workers, theyre harassing people. theyre not helping, you know, further the interests of democracy. >> the complaint comes in a state that never stopped chasing conspiracy theories about the 2020 election. candidates for governor, se...

>> as for ben johnston and what he has to say about all of this, in a word, nothing. hes refused to answer questions. in an email accused cnn of being on a witch hunt. we went to the spaulding county offices we were told on the phone that he was in a meeting. when we tried talking to him -- >> hey, is ben johnson in. >> hes not. >> are you sure? >> spaulding county under the leadership of an election denier this week. >> now were learning they believe someone has already tried to discredit the r...

Which also affect the entire state. its a scary situation. >> reporter: he has posted about qanon more than a dozen times including this supportive tweet. hate to say it, but a hell of a lot of information posted by q is accurate. red, white, and keep in mind as chair of the election board johnson is in charge of the countys certification board. johnson always acts professionally -- >> but the community has concerns where they could potentially impact the outcome of the election. >> reporter: no...

Election. >> reporter: now cnn has learned that the fulton county district attorney intends to subpoena ben johnson and two other spaulding county elections officials as part of the investigation into efforts by donald trump and his allies to overturn georgias to 2020 presidential election. there is a concerted effort to suppress the vote of people in this country. there is an effort to make people believe that the government does not believe in democracy. and thats just not, thats just not true...

The integrity of the system. cnns drew griffin joins us with the latest on this. drew, what have you seen? >> these are the people that run the elections, that are still hanging on to the disproven myths of 2020, and the question is, john, can they run fair elections in 2022? >> so -- >> in meetings, the chair of the spaulding county georgia election board sounds like any other government official. >> we hang our political hats at the door when we come in and do the peoples work. there aint no r...

Doubt. >> reporter: in meetings they sound lick any other political action. >> reporter: johnson is beyond partisan, a staunch election denier. on social media he posted two fellow insurrectionists and he posted biden is an illegitimate president. >> i think the whole structure in the spaulding county is an insider threat. >> reporter: last month johnson wrote, going to do anything about 2020. the flow of data should not pass through a foreign country. >> which is one of the key fictitious theme...

Conspiracies that voting machines contain hackable wireless devices. >> how am i supposed to know if anybody has used that wireless device to access our system? >> reporter: the danger is that these are people who may lie about election results, who are certainly likely to cast doubt about the trustworthiness of elections. >> as for ben johnson and what he has to say about all of this, in a word, nothing. hes refused to answer questions. in an email, accused cnn of being on a witch hunt when we ...