Counties flooded with requests for 2020 election records as mandatory preservation window expires

With the expiration of the federally mandated 2-year window for preservation of 2020 presidential election records, counties across the country have been inundated with public records requests from Americans concerned about election integrity

• During his "Moment of Truth Summit" last month, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell exhorted "every single person in the country" to ask for cast vote records from the election from their local county clerk's office.
• Under federal law, states and localities must preserve federal election records for 22 months after each election, but as of September 3, 2020, states were legally permitted to destroy their 2020 records.

In Illinois, Madison County Clerk Debbie Ming-Mendoza has been bogged down by "frivolous" and invasive Freedom of Information Act requests

• She has complied with state FOIA laws and will continue providing information in response to "rational" requests.
• Other county clerks have received similar FOIA requests.

An election security consultant for the federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Ryan Macias, also compared the influx of election records requests to a denial-of-service cyberattack

• when hackers try overwhelming a network with internet traffic
• This creates potential security risks in addition to the stresses election workers are otherwise experiencing

Some critical counties in battleground states have released their cast vote records

• In addition to Maricopa, these counties include Fulton County, Ga., Allegheny County, Pa.; and Brown and Dane counties in Wisconsin
• All of these counties voted to make the records public after receiving numerous requests.

https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/counties-flooded-requests-2020-election-records-federal-preservation