CNN#> Arizona auditors backtrack, say no election data destroyed

Phoenix (AFP) - Firms hired to conduct party audits for the 2020 Republicans in the Arizona Senate said Tuesday that the data had not been destroyed, reflecting earlier allegations that election officials in the state's most populous county removed the evidence.

The claim of the deleted databases has been inflated by former President Donald Trump and his supporters, who believe in conspiracy theories about election irregularities.

Ben Cotton, founder of a computer forensic company working on the audit, told key senators that he had recovered all the data. The disclosure came a day after Maricopa County officials issued a scathing letter saying that the auditors were unable to find the data because they did not know where to look.

"I have the information I need from a data recovery effort," said Cotton, founder of CyFIR LLC.

He spoke at a live broadcast hearing that Republican Senate President Karen Phan called to demand responses from county officials to allegations of deletion of data and incorrect documentation of ballot storage.

The Board of Supervisors in the Republican-controlled county refused to come forward, instead holding a dramatic meeting on Monday to disprove the allegations. They described the audit as "bogus" and said that the art auditors were incompetent.

After Trump complained without evidence that his Arizona loss was marred by fraud, Fann used Senate summoning authority to take over 2.1 million ballot papers, counting machines and hard drives filled with county data from Maricopa, which includes the Phoenix area. He hired Cyber ​​Ninjas, a company led by a Trump supporter that promoted conspiracy theories about the elections, and CyFIR and other companies to review ballot papers and data.

The vote count has been suspended this week, while an aging scenario is being used for high school graduates.

At Tuesday's hour-long Senate meeting, Van and Judicial Committee Chairman Warren Petersen, who is also a Republican, posed friendly questions to Cotton, Cyber ​​Ninja founder Doug Logan, and Ken Bennett, former Secretary of State. Connection. The meeting was broadcast online, but it was not open to the press or the public. Neither the senators nor the auditors responded to questions from the media.

County officials rejected a Senate request to provide administrative passwords for counters and internet routers, saying the county does not have the passwords and releasing the routers would harm confidential information.

The session did not highlight a central question for the review: who pays. The Senate agreed to pay Cyber ​​Ninjas $ 150,000, but Logan acknowledged that wasn't enough to cover his costs. He declined to disclose the cost of the audit or whoever contributes. At least two fundraisers, one organized by a pro-Trump cable network and the other organized by a prominent Trump donor, have claimed to have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars.

While many Trump supporters hope the review will yield evidence that he is the legitimate winner in the 2020 election, Fan said he is not seeking to annul or cancel the election results. Instead, he wants to identify ways to improve election procedures in the future, which has raised concerns among Democrats that the Republican Party will push for legislation that suppresses Democratic votes.

Petersen, chair of the Judiciary Committee, said the Maricopa County audit would be a model for future lawmakers.

“With the next forensic audit, it will be a completely seamless process from start to finish,” Petersen said.

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