BISMARCK, N.D. — Election officials across North Dakota have been inundated with hundreds of requests for records over the past several months from activists alleging unproven vote count manipulation related to the 2020 presidential election.
The trouble is, most requests ask for information that does not exist, and the flood of requests is tying up and frustrating state and county officials as they prepare for upcoming midterm elections on Nov. 8, 2022.
Officials in Barnes, Burke, Burleigh, Pierce, Slope, Steele, Towner and Wells counties confirmed they had received a multitude of these requests in recent months, often with similar wording and frequently threatening court action if documents are not produced.
Several officials indicated that they understand the situation is statewide.
The phenomenon stems from allegations made by
MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell at a symposium in South Dakota in August 2021
where he stated that results of the 2020 presidential election were electronically manipulated broadly across the country.
Further efforts from a Texas-based nonprofit called True the Vote alleging widespread voter fraud and a movie released in May by conservative filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza called “2000 Mules” kept the drumbeat of email requests steady through early September.
State Election Director Brian Newby said that many of the requests are nearly duplicate, cut-and-pasted emails asking for information that does not exist or that requestees likely do not even understand themselves.
“That’s time consuming,” said Newby during an interview at the Capitol.
The emailed records requests are sometimes from legitimate residents of North Dakota, many who send frequent requests, as well as obvious fake names and accounts, Newby said.
Requests come from both inside and outside the state. North Dakota News Cooperative reviewed several of the requests and attempted to contact the senders, but none of those inquiries were responded to by the time of writing.
“It’s a nuisance, to be sure,” said Beth Didier, Barnes County auditor. “The worst part is that it always instills a sense of mild panic, as it seems people out there are trying to catch us doing something wrong, when most of us are trying our very best to do everything right.”
Steele County Auditor Emily Wigen said her office had received “more than usual” correspondence concerning open records requests related to the 2020 election.
“In a small county like ours, it is very time consuming, at a time when we are very busy with a current election, as well as the other duties and job functions we have in our jobs,” Wigen said.
“We have limited staff to be able to address the influx in requests.”
It is a similar story for Daniel Stutlien, county auditor in Wells, who said there’s been a flare up in requests for open records in general, not only related to the 2020 election.
“I think it’s a real attempt just to bog down government at all levels and then sit back and give you that ‘See I told you so’ if you don’t get your other work done,” Stutlien said. “I think they’re just trying to irritate, I honestly do.”
Stutlien said he never had any records requests at all over his 14 years as a superintendent of schools, a position he now holds part time, until this year, when two came to the school.
A domino effect of actions comes from requests that officials are uncertain how to respond to, they said. Usually, for county auditors, the first course is to liaise with the state’s attorney for that county to decide how to address the request. This often then leads to extra meetings and continuous back and forth over an appropriate response.
“I believe in transparency, but how much time do I have to really do this when I’ve got an election coming up, when I’ve got payroll in a couple days, and have to do this or…
Read More: Election officials tired, frustrated by continuous 2020 records requests – InForum