bytes and ballots

According to this LA Times story, investigation by the California Attorney General's office has found that no crime was committed by the Angelides campaign when they obtained audiotapes of Schwarzenegger's conversations from a computer in the Governor's office:

In late August, Angelides campaign aides plucked the audio from the governor's website. Portions of the recording were published by The Times in early September, two months before the election.

The files contained a casual conversation in which Schwarzenegger told aides that Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia (R-Cathedral City) has a "hot" personality, and attributed her temperament to mixed blood.

Several weeks later, with the governor's race still underway, CHP investigators consulted state Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer's office and were told that proving a crime with the evidence in hand would be impossible.

"You don't break and enter a business by walking in an open door during business hours," said Nathan Barankin, a spokesman for the attorney general's office.

The governor's computer system appeared to have been "quasi-open," he said. "That makes it very difficult to put together a prosecutable case."