Here’s the latest on the ongoing audit of votes in Maricopa County, Arizona. . .
Auditors hired by the State Senate admitted yesterday during a live-streamed hearing that the Maricopa County election database had NOT been deleted as they had earlier claimed and that it was, in fact, a case user error:
New: Arizona's election auditors and the Senate Republicans overseeing it were totally wrong in claiming a key Maricopa County database had been deleted. They'd just been looking the wrong way, their tech expert admitted today.
My story on the blunder: https://t.co/5GDcTVhVON
— Eric Bradner (@ericbradner) May 18, 2021
This means the auditors and the county now agree on what actually happened, which is important:
Major news out of AZ Senate meeting on the supposed "deleted directory" of Maricopa County election files, repeated by @ArizonaAudit & Donald Trump.
Auditors found files they said were deleted.
Auditors' explanation for what happened lines up exactly with what county thought.
— Jen Fifield (@JenAFifield) May 18, 2021
As we told you last week, this conspiracy theory even made its way all the way to the desk of former President Trump which prompted this GOP election official to call Trump “unhinged”:
Wow. This is unhinged. I’m literally looking at our voter registration database on my other screen. Right now.
We can’t indulge these insane lies any longer. As a party. As a state. As a country.
This is as readily falsifiable as 2+2=5. If we don’t call this out… pic.twitter.com/5tDy1wsZg6
— Stephen Richer—Maricopa Cnty Recorder (prsnl acct) (@stephen_richer) May 15, 2021
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The auditors really should have corrected the record earlier, however:
What the auditors, and Senate Republicans running the show, did not make clear today is when they'd realized their error — and how long they allowed misinformation about a deleted database to continue to circulate without correction.
— Eric Bradner (@ericbradner) May 18, 2021
And the tweet that the auditors now admit is incorrect and accused the county of “spoilation of evidence!” is still up:
Senate contractors just confirmed this tweet, spread widely and including by Donald Trump, is false. The contractors have this "deleted" directory.
Senate liaison told me if this initial tweet was wrong, this account would tweet to correct the record. @ArizonaAudit … https://t.co/BqWEPI4qHm
— Jen Fifield (@JenAFifield) May 18, 2021
Journos are pointing out that the database was never gone, too:
As @Garrett_Archer pointed out, auditors' use of the words "recovered" and "deleted" today obscures what really happened: The database was there all along; they hadn't figured out that the county's drives were in RAID 10 so they just couldn't get to it.https://t.co/C5jI8VVHak
— Eric Bradner (@ericbradner) May 19, 2021
But journos are also criticizing the county for answering questions live on Twitter but refusing to participate in person at the hearing:
County answering questions on twitter instead just answering the Senate directly. How useful is that for public trying to follow?https://t.co/qJGz9JpitY
— Jen Fifield (@JenAFifield) May 18, 2021
County officials also gave statements to journos “on background” which, if they had been made publicly could have cleared up a lot of confusion earlier:
This is frustrating to watch because the county provided clear answers on background to me & @Garrett_Archer yesterday on all of these questions.
But the county officials chose not to go to answer these questions in person, letting misinformation fester.
— Jen Fifield (@JenAFifield) May 18, 2021
The audit will continue on May 24:
https://twitter.com/ArizonaAudit/status/1394804764844519426
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