Arizona auditors now say voter data is intact, after sparking GOP feud

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Source: CNN

Auditors hired by the Arizona state Senate backtracked Tuesday from claims that a key database had been deleted from Maricopa County's elections servers -- admitting in a hearing held by the Senate Republicans overseeing the audit that the data is intact and they'd been looking the wrong way.

The blunder was the latest embarrassment for state Senate President Karen Fann and the Republicans who sought the audit, which is being overseen by a company called Cyber Ninjas.

In a letter last week to the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, Fann wrote -- in claims that have since been proved false -- that "the main database for all election related data" for the 2020 election in Arizona's most populous county "has been removed," and asked the board for an explanation.

The Twitter account for the Senate's audit went even further, saying: "Maricopa County deleted a directory full of election databases from the 2020 election cycle days before the election equipment was delivered to the audit. This is spoliation of evidence!"


Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/arizona-auditors-now-say-voter-data-is-intact-after-sparking-gop-feud/ar-BB1gSLZB?li=BBnb7Kz

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They had the dotard shitting himself.

[underpants]

1. There's an email joke here but I can't get it

[msongs]

2. the ballots havbe been completely corrupted and are no longer reliable due to meddling nt

[regnaD kciN]

3. Of course, the "deleted database" is now firmly part of the MAGAt narrative...

...and no amount of correction will change that, any more than it did the 2000 Repug claim that "Al Gore claimed he invented the Internet."

[Elessar Zappa]

8. The cult is beyond hope.

As long as Biden keeps up his awesome approval rating, the good people will keep the nutcases at bay.

[Under The Radar]

4. Yea well, explain why the ink on the ballots is made from Panda Piss

And for those who need it-

[AZ8theist]

5. And marked with Panda Piss sharpies....

[AZ8theist]

6. Cyber Scumbags are literally putting themselves out of business.

Nice work. Maybe try Putin for election "audits" next time. He, like you, establishes results ahead of time. Saves a lot of trouble.

[riversedge]

7. trumps bigly ego must have had a blow out with this announcement. te he

[NullTuples]

9. As someone who has written a database query or two...

...I'd just love to know what these Cyber Ninjas meant when they said, "they'd been looking the wrong way".

[SeattleVet]

10. Pretty good explanation here:

https://www.maricopa.gov/DocumentCenter/View/68971/Final-Technical-Response-Letter-with-Exhibits-5172021

Pretty well demolishes the wingnuts' conspiracy claims.

They didn't configure the RAID properly, and were also claiming that file modification dates were all the same and showed some kind of nefarious activity. (Essentially, they didn't know/remember that Microsoft SQL puts the date in when the file is closed or the system is brought down.)

Also has great explanations of the ballot tracking sheets where the con-artist 'frauditors' were claiming missing or extra ballots. When they come across unreadable ballots they are listed in the tally, then go out for duplication by a bi-partisan team, and the numbers do match when you take into account the re-created ballots. Some of the 'frauditors' were also counting both the unreadable ballot and its replacement.

Good reading!

[Sapient Donkey]

15. Those are some horrible cyber ninjas...

I hope they are embarrassed by this.

[NullTuples]

18. That timestamp issue tells me they've never actually worked with SQL before (MS or other flavor)

As someone who has been a database server admin, it really bothers me that they were given access to something they did not understand. That's not how audits work.

But worse, it would appear CyberNinjaDudes didn't understand how to make or use so-called "forensic clones" any more than they understood SQL Server. A forensic clone of a drive is typically an bit-for-bit image of a drive. It gets complicated for RAID arrays because the new images have to be reconfigured back into a functioning volume or volumes (think: drive letters like "D: drive&quot . That they would move forward with their analysis before verifying and ensuring that they had functional volumes simply makes no sense.

It's almost like they were hired to make a certain finding and did so with only the flimsiest of made up data to back it.

[Sapient Donkey]

19. They are looking for what they want as opposed to be objective auditors.

Even if they were not experts with MSSQL Server, an objective party would have brought in someone who was or at least made an attempt to look for other explanations. At we all expected, they have no interest in that.

[Sapient Donkey]

14. I don't think they understood how RAID works or something.

I just briefly saw some people discussing it, but I haven't dug in further to confirm if that's actually the case.


*edit* oh, looks like reply before me by seattlevet discusses it. I should read all the posts before commenting.

[MissMillie]

11. What is obvious: the firm doing the "audit"

has no clue about what it is doing. They look STUPID and the Arizona Senate looks STUPID for hiring them.

[Griefbird]

12. Never use the word "Auditors" to refer to these clowns.

The correct term is "Scammers".

[SeattleVet]

16. 'Frauditors'

[thucythucy]

17. And the Justice Department and IRS should audit

"Cyber Ninjas."