The Latest: Calls for investigation of election server wipe

The Latest on evidence that a computer server crucial to a lawsuit against Georgia election officials was wiped just after the suit was filed (all times local):

2:45 p.m.

Calls for an investigation came Thursday after The Associated Press reported on evidence that a computer server crucial to a lawsuit against Georgia election officials was wiped clean just after the suit was filed.

The server was a statewide elections staging machine that made 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.

The plaintiffs had hoped a forensic exam of the machine's contents would support their claim that Georgia should scrap its 15-year-old voting system.

Republican state Rep. Scot Turner said he thinks there should be a criminal investigation to determine who was responsible and what the motivation was.

U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson said in an emailed statement that he is outraged by "(w)hat appears to be a willful and premeditated destruction of evidence."

Sara Henderson, executive director of Common Cause Georgia, called for a transparent, independent investigation into the specific role played by the Center for Elections Systems at Kennesaw State University in state elections.

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6 a.m.

A computer server crucial to a lawsuit against Georgia election officials was quietly wiped clean by its custodians just after the suit was filed, The Associated Press has learned.

The Associated Press obtained an email written by an assistant Georgia attorney general describing the July 7 data destruction and supporting documents from a public records search that also describe it.

The server was a statewide elections staging machine that made 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.

The plaintiffs hoped a forensic exam of the machine's contents would support their claim that Georgia should scrap its 15-year-old voting system. Computer scientists consider it one of the least secure systems in the nation.