Thread by @weareoversight

As state officials launched sham election reviews to push the Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen, we sprung to action and filed dozens of public records requests to investigate. This #GivingTuesday , here’s an overview of what we’ve uncovered about sham election reviews.

I: Arizona. Soon after the election, the Arizona Senate, led by Senate President Karen Fann, subpoenaed Maricopa County, the state’s most populous county, for images of mail-in ballots, voting equipment, and other documents.

Records we later obtained showed that Fann boasted about having “numerous conversations” with Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani during this period, and had received a “personal call from President Trump thanking us for pushing to prove any fraud.”

Despite an independent audit showing that there had been no problem with the voting machines used in Maricopa County, the state Senate pushed ahead with its own “audit” of the results.

To conduct this operation, the Senate hired a little-known firm called Cyber Ninjas, which had no experience in conducting election reviews, and whose leader, Doug Logan, had publicly supported “Stop the Steal” conspiracy theories.

In May, we sued the Arizona Senate to release records from the “audit,” including those in the possession of Cyber Ninjas.

Our litigation has obtained more than 80,000 pages of records from the Arizona Senate — painting a clear picture of partisan bias, shoddy methodology, and involvement of conspiracy theorists in the "audit" process.
americanoversight.org/why-you-still-…

In July, we released a preliminary report on our findings based on the documents that had already been released to us, which included evidence of the political motivations behind the audit and of the involvement of conspiracy theorists.
americanoversight.org/how-the-arizon…

Although Arizona judges have repeatedly held that the documents we’re seeking are public records, the Senate is continuing to fight against transparency. You can learn more about the latest developments in our litigation here:
americanoversight.org/investigation/…

II: Wisconsin. As the Arizona Senate pursued its sham “audit” of its election results, Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos announced that he would hire people to investigate his state’s election results.

Vos later hired retired state Supreme Court justice Michael Gableman to oversee the investigation. Like Arizona’s operation, Vos’s investigation has largely operated under a veil of secrecy. In May, we submitted records requests to learn more.

On Oct. 8, we sued the Wisconsin Assembly & Speaker Vos for failing to release key records. Within a few hours, the judge ordered the defendants to release records within 30 days or show cause why they could or would not.
americanoversight.org/court-orders-w…

We’ve already obtained some records from Wisconsin, which provide new information about the expenses of staff conducting the Wisconsin Assembly’s partisan election investigation, including taxpayer-funded travel to the Arizona election “audit.”
americanoversight.org/new-records-de…

We’re still fighting to uncover more documents — including those created by Gableman’s team over the summer — and our lawsuit is ongoing. Keep up to date with the latest here:
americanoversight.org/investigation/…

III: Pennsylvania: Even before Arizona's "audit" got underway, Trump supporters in Pennsylvania were pushing counties to conduct their own "audits" questioning the validity of election results.

IV: Texas. In Sept., the Texas secretary of state’s office announced a “full forensic audit” of the 2020 election — just hours after former President Trump publicly asked Gov. Greg Abbott to do so.
americanoversight.org/investigation/…

Trump’s demand for the investigation in Texas came nearly a year after he won the state by a 5.6 percent margin. The “audit” will focus on results in Dallas, Harris, Tarrant, and Collin counties, all of which except Collin were won by Joe Biden.

We have submitted 14 records requests that ask for the release of communications from the secretary of state, governor, & attorney general’s offices as well as the elections departments & county commissioners in Dallas, Harris, Tarrant, & Collin counties concerning this "audit.”

The results of the 2020 election are not in doubt and there have been no credible allegations of fraud or misconduct. The fallout from these baseless investigations is a deepening sense of democratic distrust and the undermining of the U.S.’s electoral system.

Do you want to help us expose sham election reviews? Support our efforts to expose their corruption & donate this #GivingTuesday !
actionnetwork.org/fundraising/gi…