Declassified documents have revealed that more than 600,000 voter files in Arizona’s largest county were hacked before the 2020 elections. The hacking occurred on a Maricopa County voter registration site, where a suspected hacker exploited the county’s voter records, extracting 633,000 records, including 930 with sensitive information.

Investigation and Declined Prosecution

The FBI thoroughly investigated the incident and handed over the information to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona, the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, and the Pinal County Attorney’s Office. However, all declined to prosecute the case, leading to it being closed in 2023.

The suspect, who authorities said confessed, claimed to have discovered the vulnerability on Maricopa County’s voter registration record servers. The suspect used a PowerShell script to extract the data and store it at his home but destroyed the files before an FBI raid.

White House Response and Election Security Concerns

A White House official stated that the suspect expressed remorse for the hacking and investigators don’t believe the suspect was working with any foreign agents, nor were any ballots or voter registrations altered. The incident has raised concerns about election security, with President Donald Trump accusing China of compromising tens of millions of voters’ data in 18 states.

Original reporting: KTBS 3 (Shreveport) — read the source article.