ATLANTA – 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.