Tuscarawas County Board of Elections deluged with demands and record requests

NEW PHILADELPHIA ‒The Tuscarawas County Board of Elections, like others boards across Ohio and the U.S., has been inundated with public records requests related to the 2020 presidential election in which former President Donald Trump lost to now-President Joe Biden.

The board has received correspondence ordering it to stop holding elections as the Nov. 8 general election approaches.

"I DEMAND no further ELECTIONS until ALL Ohio Voters can ONLY VOTE ON PAPER and have those VOTES COUNTED BY HAND," reads one communication that mirrored others. "We have no better option for free and fair elections.

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"We can't trust any electronic voting apparatus, period," the Fairview Park resident wrote. "Anything electronic can be easily hacked by only the simplest means by those determined to do so. It's not that difficult and has been proven."

Demands to block elections and hold records

Elections Director Gail E. Garbrandt found part of the message threatening, so she sent it to the county sheriff and prosecutor.

On Sept. 13, the person wrote back to say, "At no time should any of my letters be interpreted as 'threatening.'"

In addition to demanding that no further elections be held until all Ohio ballots are cast on paper, the writer asked the local elections office to retain any and all records including but not limited to poll books, precinct register pages with signatures and button text, all voting machine tapes and other documents.

Tuscarawas County uses paper ballots, and therefore does not have the voting machine tapes requested.

A Sugarcreek woman wrote on Aug. 25 that election infrastructure has been designated as part of the nation's critical infrastructure. She wrote that the designation "effectively resulted in the federal government improperly usurping the authority of the respective states to manage their own elections in violation of the Tenth Amendment of the United States Constitution."

Like others, she said Ohio's election officials should stop using electronic voting machines.

Garbrandt responded in an email, saying, "Perhaps this is best directed to the Ohio Secretary of State and your elected members of Congress. We appreciate your interest in election administration."

Almost all the public records requests and demands in the three-inch-thick file in Garbrandt's office come from outside Tuscarawas County. Many contain identical language.

"I hereby notify you and instruct you to retain any and all documents and other materials related to all post-2019 federal and state elections through the date of this letter and continuing thereafter," requesters wrote in separate letters. In both of their letters, that sentence was underlined.

Garbrandt replied by saying, in part, that records are retained for 90 days in odd-numbered years, which means that data from 2019 and 2021 has been shredded. In even-numbered years when federal elections occur, records are retained for 22 months. Garbrandt said the shredding of documents from the 2020 election has been canceled due to the threat of litigation.

The local elections office normally receives a lighter volume of public record requests. She has to respond to the requests in three days. A year's worth of requests typically occupies a thin sliver in a folder, Garbrandt said.

This year, the requests keep coming. On Thursday, the office received request for files on all 58,704 registered voters so the writer could collect their email addresses and phone numbers.

Garbrandt told writer there is no single file with that information in existence.

"Keep in mind that registration changes daily up until the last day to register for this election which is October 11, 2022 at 9:00 p.m.," she told him via email. "I have forwarded this vast request to our prosecutor for counsel. Thank you for your interest in elections administration."

Some requests dubbed overly broad or impossible to fulfill

Some requests seek more voluminous information.

"There was somebody who wanted everything from the 2020 election, all the ballots, all the machine tapes, every single email from the Secretary of State, every form that was filled out," Garbrandt said.

Garbrandt had a response for that request: The request is overly broad. The author was invited to visit the elections office to revise the requests. There, an outside contractor would prepare documents. The person making the response must pay the consultant in advance.

One requester, from Cincinnati, subsequently withdrew the request, she said.

Garbrandt estimates she spends an hour a day responding to public records requests and demands as the elections board prepares for the November election. Early voting begins Oct. 12. On the same day, workers must start to mail absentee ballots. Garbrandt anticipates that 30% of general election ballots will be cast absentee.

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She has ideas about the motivations of those who are sending the public records requests and demands.

"I do think they're trying to cause delay," Garbrandt said. "I think that depending on which group it is, the group that says, 'Do not shred anything,' they can't let go of the 2020 election. It's gone. It's done. It's over. You're not going to redo it. Can we move on, please?"

Rob Nichols, press secretary for Secretary of State Frank LaRose, declined to speculate on the possible common source for the public records requests and demands sent to local boards of elections.

But he said the Secretary of State's Office has no reason to doubt national and state media accounts that traced the effort to conservative activists Tom Zawistowski of Portage County and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell. Lindell, an ally of former President Trump, has led efforts to ban voting machines he claims contributed to fraud in the 2020 election. Audits and court cases have found no evidence to support the allegations.

The records requests and demands have reportedly been made in all 88 Ohio counties and in other states across the nation.

"It's tough. It's onerous," Nichols said. "It's a tremendous burden on the boards at a time when they need to be focused on election administration because we're six weeks out from the midterms. It's not helpful."

Garbrandt agrees.

"I just keep hoping every day that they're going to stop," she said. "And they just aren't. I'm obligated by law to answer them within so many days. But I'm also obligated by law to administer the election. It is a challenge and it's something that we will do and we will get through it. But they're not making it easier. And for them to wrap themselves in the flag and say, 'We're concerned about elections and that's why we want all this stuff,' think about, in the big picture, what you're doing as an unintended consequence. You're jamming up the system. You're slowing things down. The election is going to happen. It's not going to get delayed because you have sent all these public record requests."

Reach Nancy at 330-364-8402 or nancy.molnar@timesreporter.com.

On Twitter: @nmolnarTR

This article originally appeared on The Times-Reporter: Tuscarawas County Board of Elections deluged with record requests