Represented by American Oversight and Caplan Cobb, Free Speech For People sent a letter demanding the production of a public record of an alleged voting system breach.  

WASHINGTON, D.C. – October 8, 2024 – Representing Free Speech For People, American Oversight and Caplan Cobb sent a demand letter today to Hall Booth Smith, P.C. (HBS), attorneys for Ware County, Georgia, demanding production of a public record that appears to confirm the Trump campaign infiltrated the county’s voting system in late 2020.

The demand letter seeks a record attached to text messages produced at trial in the civil litigation Curling v. Raffensperger that appears to confirm the Trump campaign’s unlawful access to the county’s voting equipment. (Free Speech For People, American Oversight, and Caplan Cobb are not parties to the litigation.)

The texts show a conversation between HBS attorney for Ware County, Tony Rowell, and Blake (Ed) Voyles, discussing reports that the Trump campaign had taken a voting system from Ware County. Voyles is a resident of neighboring Coffee County, where Trump operatives unlawfully accessed voting equipment over several days in early 2021. Voyles is shown on surveillance camera footage to be present during one of the unauthorized security breaches. Rowell and HBS represent both Ware and Coffee Counties.

In the text messages, Voyles sent Rowell a post from social media reporting allegations that the Trump campaign obtained a voting system from Ware County, and asked Rowell if he may be able to verify the report. Rowell responded, “I will verify.” Two days later Rowell sent Voyles an attachment labeled “ware-county-confirmation.jpg” accompanied by the message “CALL ME. T”. Free Speech For People has sought the attachment through Georgia’s open records law since February 2024. Representing Ware County, HBS has refused to produce the attachment, claiming that it is private communication between Rowell and Voyles, in Rowell’s capacity as a private citizen.

The demand letter refutes HBS’s claims that the attachment to Rowell’s text message is a private communication, unconnected to his role as Ware County Attorney. Rather, the letter explains that under recent Georgia Supreme Court precedent, the attachment to Rowell’s text message is a public record because it concerns county business that Mr. Rowell could only have knowledge of or access to by virtue of his position as Ware County Attorney. The letter further refutes HBS’s claims that the attachment—which Rowell shared with a private citizen who has no position with the Ware County government—is exempt from disclosure as an attorney-client communication or attorney work product. The demand letter concludes by noting that Rowell and HBS had previously stonewalled in disclosing the surveillance video that documented the unauthorized access to Coffee County election equipment, but that further delay here is unacceptable and HBS must immediately comply with its obligations under the Open Records Act.

“Voting equipment is a county asset and is designated as part of our national critical infrastructure. It’s preposterous to claim that a record – which ostensibly confirms the misappropriation of voting equipment by a political campaign – is not public business,” said Susan Greenhalgh, senior advisor for election security at Free Speech For People. “It appears Mr. Rowell investigated allegations of a potential crime by Trump allies, obtained a “confirmation” of that potential crime, and is purposefully concealing it from the public. HBS’ specious assertion that the communication is ‘private’ raises important additional legal and ethical questions about these private actions.”

“As those spreading election conspiracy theories continue to gin up unfounded claims of faulty voting equipment to cast doubt on the validity of our election results, the threat posed by unauthorized access to critical voting infrastructure is real and must be taken seriously,” said Chioma Chukwu, Interim Executive Director at American Oversight. “It is deeply concerning that a county official would go to such great lengths to avoid turning over a public record for more than seven months, particularly where that record could shed light on whether allies of Donald Trump also gained access to Ware County’s voting equipment.”

In 2022, documents, testimony and surveillance video obtained by the plaintiffs in the Curling litigation revealed that Coffee County had been the site of a major election security breach in 2021. Operatives hired by Trump campaign attorneys had unfettered access to the voting system over multiple days. They took copies of the voting system software used across the state and shared the software with a network of election deniers that tried to overturn the 2020 election. The software taken from Coffee County continues to be used by Trump allies in efforts to challenge and overturn election results.

The documents also showed that the voting system heist in Coffee County, Georgia was part of a multistate effort by attorneys and allies for Donald Trump to access voting system software from key swing states, much of it funded and directed by Sidney Powell. (Powell was criminally charged for her role in the breaches in Coffee County by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and pleaded guilty. However, neither local or state law enforcement in Georgia has charged anyone of these alleged crimes.)

Free Speech For People has organized a campaign to demand a federal investigation into the multistate plot by Trump supporters to take voting software. Free Speech For People also identified testimony provided to the January 6th Committee that suggests the plot was discussed in Donald Trump’s presence.

When the evidence surfaced suggesting that there was another voting system security breach in Georgia, Free Speech For People sought the record in question through a public records request.

“The nine-year sentence handed down last week to Tina Peters for her role in the voting system breach in Mesa, Colorado should serve to illustrate that unauthorized access to voting equipment is potentially a serious matter that needs to be treated accordingly,” Greenhalgh said. 

“We still don’t know how broad the scheme to take voting software really is, or how many states and localities were compromised, or where the software has been shared because there is no federal investigation into these breaches – which have serious consequences for both election security and national security,” said John Bonifaz, president and co-founder of Free Speech For People. “By uncovering more evidence showing an even wider plot, we will increase pressure on federal law enforcement to do its job and protect our elections.”

Click here for the demand letter issued today.

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Read more: Demanding Federal Action on the Trump Campaign’s Efforts to Copy and Distribute Voting System Software – Free Speech For People

In Georgia, the ‘Biggest Election Breach’ in History Has Gone Uninvestigated – NOTUS (Allbritton Journalism Institute)

The Georgia vote machine theft is a threat to the 2024 election. (slate.com)

Who’s probing Trump allies’ effort to access voting systems? – Los Angeles Times (latimes.com)

A New Player in Coffee County | Lawfare (lawfaremedia.org)