Preserve 2020 election records past 22-month minimum as potential legal evidence, watchdog urges

Records of the 2020 presidential election should be preserved beyond the 22-month federal requirement in order to preserve evidence for potential civil or criminal trials, said Phill Kline, director of election integrity nonprofit the Amistad Project.

Under federal law, states and localities must preserve federal election records for 22 months after the election.

Preserving the 2020 presidential election records is important not only for investigating potential election misdeeds, but also because they "are relevant to innocence or prosecution" of election integrity watchdogs and whistleblowers, said Kline.

J. Christian Adams, president of Public Interest Legal Foundation, told Just the News that election records related to any litigation would be subject to a litigation hold, and therefore preserved in those cases.

Investigations of suspected election irregularities in swing states critical to Joe Biden's victory have been launched in Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. These cases include:

• Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is investigating allegations of illegal ballot harvesting in the state from the 2020 presidential election brought forward by election integrity group True the Vote.

• In Michigan, three women were charged in connection with voter fraud schemes, including efforts to cast ballots on behalf of non-consenting nursing home residents.

• A lawsuit in Delaware County, Pa., brought by 2020 Republican state House candidate Ruth Moton and others against Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar and 2020 election voting machine warehouse supervisor James Savage alleging election fraud and evidence destruction was dismissed in July. The judge determined that the case was moot because the complaint "challenges the administration of an election that occurred in 2020 and the prevailing candidates in that election have been inaugurated."
• In Arizona, Guillermina Fuentes, a former Democratic mayor of San Luis and board member for the the Gadsden Elementary School District, pled guilty in June to ballot harvesting during the August 2020 primary election. Fuentes was part of a ballot-harvesting scheme in Yuma County in which early ballots were collected from voters and dropped off at a ballot box on primary election day. Both Fuentes and another woman, Alma Juarez, who also pled guilty to ballot harvesting, will be sentenced in September, with prosecutors seeking a one-year prison sentence.
• In Wisconsin, former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman was aggressively pursuing allegations of 2020 election malfeasance until GOP state Assembly Speaker Robin Vos fired him last week from his position as special counsel. Vos closed the special counsel's office after claiming victory in the GOP primary against challenger Adam Steen, who was backed by both former President Donald Trump and Gableman.

Citing "the unprecedented infusion of private money, and unprecedented, intentional violation of laws by certain election officials" and "the unwillingness of states to assist in understanding the impact" of the private funds, the 2020 presidential election records should be preserved until such issues are investigated and understood, Kline told Just the News.

There hasn't been "any meaningful review" of the 2020 presidential election, as the audits that have been conducted weren't "designed to address uniqueness of the 2020 election," the former Kansas attorney general explained. The audits, he said, were conducted "on an election that didn't happen" because they were designed to audit an election where the laws were followed.

Observing that he's "never known anyone who broke the law that kept evidence," Kline said the election records shouldn't be destroyed upon the expiration of the 22-month retention requirement, even though, per federal law, they could be.

In addition to the pending investigations of election irregularities underway in critical swing states, several lawyers and election integrity watchdogs have been shut down, sanctioned or threatened with legal consequences in recent months for investigating the 2020 presidential election. Cases of legal threats and retaliation against watchdogs include:

• In Michigan earlier this month, Attorney General Dana Nessel asked Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson to name a special prosecutor for consideration of criminal charges against nine people, including her Republican opponent in the race for state attorney general attorney, Matt DePerno. In a letter to Benson, Nessel alleged the group of individuals "gained unauthorized access" to the offices of four county clerks, where they "compromised tabulators" between March 11, 2021 and late June of 2021.
• In May, the Washington state Supreme Court — prodded by the Democratic state Attorney General Bob Ferguson — fined election transparency watchdog the Washington Election Integrity Coalition United and its lawyer, Virginia Shogren, $9,600 and $18,800, respectively, for suing Gov. Jay Inslee for allegedly allowing or encouraging the state to register noncitizens to vote. Ferguson also filed a bar complaint against Shogren for her lawsuit, claiming she violated professional conduct rules by advancing "frivolous legal arguments and made allegations of voter fraud with no basis in fact."
• In Wisconsin, Peter Bernegger, data analyst for the Wisconsin Center for Election Justice, was fined $2,403 in March by the Wisconsin Elections Commission for filing "frivolous complaints."
• In Fulton County, Ga., the district attorney has convened a grand jury to consider the allegation that Trump attempted to pressure state officials to overturn the 2020 election results. Thus far, 11 of the 16 members of an alternate slate of Trump electors in the states are targets in a criminal probe, as is the president's former lawyer, Rudy Giuliani.
• In Colorado, Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, a Republican, was indicted by a grand jury in March for allegedly allowing a hard drive to be copied during an election equipment update in May 2021. She has been indicted on 10 charges.
• On the federal level, the FBI has delivered subpoenas to several Pennsylvania state legislators after seizing the phone of U.S. Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) shortly after the raid on Mar-a-Lago. According to reports, the subpoenas were related to efforts to find alternate electors for Trump following the 2020 presidential election.