Rep. Johnson’s statement on Georgia election server wiped clean

Congressman Hank Johnson, who represents Georgia’s Fourth District, released the following statement after learning that, according to the Associated Press, a computer server at the center of a lawsuit against Georgia election officials was quietly wiped clean just after the suit was filed:

“What appears to be a willful and premeditated destruction of evidence by Georgia election officials heightens my suspicion that there was manipulation of the election results in the April 18th Sixth District congressional primary, in which Jon Ossoff came only 3,200 votes shy of winning outright without a runoff. The apparent deliberate destruction of evidence that could have proven the unreliability of Georgia’s electronic voting process tells me that electronic voting has not impeded what has occurred throughout Georgia’s electoral history – blatant cheating. What used to take place in courthouse basements and back rooms on election night can now be accomplished with a few keystrokes on a laptop computer. Unfortunately, my suspicions can never be proven wrong because Georgia election officials deleted and destroyed the evidence. Georgia voters should be as outraged as I am.”

The Associated Press reported that a computer server’s data crucial to a lawsuit against Georgia election officials was quietly wiped clean by its custodians just after the suit was filed. The server’s data was destroyed July 7 by technicians at the Center for Elections Systems at Kennesaw State University, which runs the state’s election system. The data wipe was revealed in an email sent from an assistant state attorney general to plaintiffs in the case that was obtained by the AP.

The lawsuit was filed July 3 by a group of election reform advocates, who are trying to force Georgia to replace its antiquated election machines. The server in question, which served as a statewide staging location for key election-related data, made national headlines in June after a security expert disclosed a gaping security hole that wasn’t fixed six months after he reported it to election authorities.