Local election boards are being bombarded with public records requests to keep them from destroying 2020 election records

COLUMBUS, Ohio  Local election boards in Ohio have been hit with recent public records requests that appear designed to prevent them from keeping documents for the 2020 presidential election that they would otherwise be able to release this month.

   Federal law requires local election officials to retain congressional and presidential election materials for 22 months after ballots are cast.  Discarding old records is routine for local board elections, which in many Ohio counties have limited space to warehouse documents and must have space for records beginning in the 2022 midterm elections.

   However, before the September 3 date when the Ohio Board of Elections could begin debunking the 2020 presidential election records, they began receiving similarly worded public records requests from multiple email addresses showing 2020 presidential election data.

   The requested materials will include copies of all ballots, ballots, voting machine reports and absentee ballot identification cards, among other records, totaling thousands of documents.  Election boards are not permitted to destroy records pending requests.

   As the retention period for most of these document categories is nearing its end, it is extremely important to receive a complete response prior to any planned disposal of these records, states a recount of records requests affecting the state.  Election Board.  Given that it may not be a straightforward or streamlined process to obtain a full and complete response from you before the retention period for many of these documents expires, I request that any destruction or disposal of such records be prohibited until this request is completed.

   Giga County Board of Elections Director Michelle Lane says her county has received so many requests for information about the 2020 election in the past three or four months that more workers have been hired to meet them all.  She said that requests are coming from people from all over the state and many requests are written in the same way from different people.  Lane says some of the data he is requesting is not available, and the rest of the information he needs requires thousands of thousands of copies, as well as labor intensive redactions of voter ID information like birth dates.  .

   Lane said the requests his office has received have been very disruptive as it tries to prepare for the November general election.

   The cost to the requestor would be enormous, says Lane, who asked county legal counsel how to handle the requests.  They want a copy of all ballots in 2020, used and unused, all notices and correspondence, all voting lists and voting records.  Some of them, we don't know what they are asking for.

   Brian Sleuth, president of the Ohio Association of Election Officials, who serves as Warren County is director of elections, says the registration tapes requested from voting machines from his office are 50 to 70 feet long and would be difficult to copy.  If his county records meet that part of the request, he will have to go to an outside company to do the copying.

   I don't think you shall  find any election officials who don't want to address and deal with voter fraud, but people who are deliberately manipulating people into believing it's happening without any kind of evidence.  It has been said.  Lake.  County Board of Elections Director Ross McDonald, whose office has also been inundated with similarly worded public records requests from multiple email addresses.  They are asking for information that the requester does not understand what it is.

   Pete Ziegler, deputy director of the Summit County Board of Elections, says many of the requests are asking for information their counties are not providing, such as electronic images of all 2020 ballots.

   First of all, primary ballots are perceptions of the past, says Ziegler.  Even if they do not, we do not have their electronic images because our polling system does not tabulate based on electronic images.

   It would cost in the six figures to print copies of the requested ballots, Ziegler says, adding that records requesters contacted by his office declined to pay deposits for printing.  Or when they found out how much it cost, they did not  Answer: He said that 283,708 general election ballots were cast in Summit County that year, and each had two sides.

   Ziegler says hanging those records past the date they would otherwise be destroyed would take up a lot of space pending public records requests.  The county cannot keep them in storage, as they must be secured under double lock and key with surveillance cameras.