Greene County Clerk asks judge to rule on release of data sought by 2020 election deniers

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, one of the most prominent 2020 election conspiracists, has been encouraging his followers to request "cast vote records" from their county election authorities to search for signs of voter fraud.

A cast vote record is essentially data collected from electronic voting machines that show how each person voted, without attaching their name.

In Springfield — where Lindell held his "Moment of Truth Summit" in August — Greene County Clerk Shane Schoeller said he's received more than a dozen records requests from people seeking cast vote records. And he's now asking a judge to decide how he should proceed.

Schoeller said he wants to be open and transparent but also doesn't want to inadvertently reveal how any individual voted. He said his understanding is that the cast vote records print out in order, so if it was known who the first person was to vote at a specific location then the cast vote records would reveal how that person voted.

"It’s important that we never compromise the secrecy of a ballot," Schoeller said.

To get clarity on his legal obligations, Schoeller filed a lawsuit in September against Laurie Huddleston — one of the people who requested the voting records.

More:Greene County Clerk Shane Schoeller named 'Sunshine Hero' for government transparency

Schoeller, who was named a "Sunshine Hero" by the Missouri Sunshine Coalition in July for his commitment to government transparency, emphasized that his lawsuit is not adversarial against Huddleston and he simply had to pick a name to file his legal petition.

Schoeller said Thursday he is not sure how much work it would entail to fulfill the records requests, but his office will comply if that is what a judge decides.

Huddleston is being represented in the case by Dave Roland, the director of litigation for a nonprofit called the Freedom Center. Roland said Huddleston's motivation in filing the records request was to act as a watchdog of sorts, trying to ensure election results released to the public in November 2020 were true and accurate.

"There is a significant part of this data that the voting machines capture that can and should be produced to Missouri citizens so they can keep our elections transparent and accountable to the people," Roland said.

As for Schoeller's concern about certain voters being outed based on the order in which they voted, Roland said he believes there is a way to "anonymize" the data so it would not be possible to match up individuals with their ballot selections. But Schoeller said rearranging the data like that would present another hurdle because it might cause his office to create a new record rather than simply releasing a record that already exists.

"If a judge directs me to do that, I’ll do that," Schoeller said.

The 2020 election, in which Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in the presidential race, has been the subject of much scrutiny with Trump and some of his allies promoting debunked narratives that the election was illegally stolen from him. The meritless claims helped fuel the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol.

More:All 7 of Springfield's Capitol riot defendants are sentenced. Could more still be charged?

Schoeller, who has been in office since 2014, said there is an extensive process for ensuring elections are secure in Greene County that includes thoroughly testing the equipment with a bipartisan team before and after each election and manually counting ballots in some precincts to double check that the machines are tabulating correctly.

Schoeller's lawsuit is assigned to Greene County Judge Jason Brown but will likely transfer to another judge when Brown retires at the end of the year. Roland said he anticipates it taking anywhere from nine months to more than two years to resolve the case.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Greene County clerk asks judge to rule on releasing 2020 election data