Utah County Commissioner Invoice Lee is asking for detailed knowledge from the 2022 major election to make use of when the fee meets subsequent Tuesday to certify the outcomes. The report he’s requesting is just like knowledge that teams pushing unfounded claims of rampant election fraud have been looking for.
Lee is asking for one thing referred to as the “forged vote report” or “CVR” from the election. Consider it as a report of when each poll was counted and logged within the system. Technically, there’s no such report. Utah County Clerk Josh Daniels explains the information exists, however no one has ever requested for it earlier than.
“It’s a abstract of the votes forged within the election. This report doesn’t exist except we generate it. There’s no purpose for us to generate it,” Daniels says.
Though the information Lee is requesting doesn’t embrace voters’ private info, Daniels explains it’s so detailed that it could possibly be used to triangulate how an individual voted, violating the Utah Structure’s assure of a secret poll.
Lee has ties to election deniers Jen Orten and Sophie Anderson, identified on-line because the “Two Pink Drugs.” They’ve made open data requests to almost each county in Utah trying to acquire the “CVR” knowledge from the 2020 election however have been repeatedly rebuffed. To acquire that knowledge, they’ve filed go well with towards a number of counties, together with Utah County.
The Utah Elections Workplace beforehand stated Utah regulation prohibits releasing sure varieties of election supplies, together with knowledge, that can’t be disclosed publicly. Elections director Ryan Cowley declined to remark for this text as his workplace filed as an intervenor towards Orten and Andersen of their lawsuit.
Orten and Anderson have made fantastical claims that they have been focused and surveilled by shadowy federal brokers after making these requests, together with that “poison darts” have been put into their clothes. Anderson is awaiting trial on fees she disrupted a Granite College Board assembly final yr.
In March, the pair introduced Lee with a “Combat for Freedom” award “for his brave management with mandates, election points/audits, and sooo rather more!” based on a publish on their Telegram channel. In addition they endorsed Lee over his Republican opponent in final month’s major election.
Orten and Anderson have ties to a number of proponents of “the massive lie” that the 2020 election was fraudulent.
In February, Lee partnered with Orten and Anderson to permit self-proclaimed election knowledge analyst Jeff O’Donnell to deal with a Utah County Fee assembly about purported anomalies in election knowledge. The assembly video was briefly taken down as a result of it contained misinformation and falsehoods about election fraud.
O’Donnell, identified on-line as “the Lone Raccoon,” is a proponent of the evidence-free conspiracy principle that so-called “phantom voters” have been liable for Donald Trump’s loss in a number of states in 2020. Extra lately, O’Donnell authored a totally debunked report claiming election irregularities in Colorado.
O’Donnell was the headline speaker at a pair of election fraud conspiracy occasions sponsored by Orten and Andersen in March, the place Lee was in attendance.
Orten and Anderson are additionally tied to Tina Peters, the Colorado county clerk dealing with a number of felony fees for allegedly leaking voting machine knowledge on-line. Final month they, together with Rep. Phil Lyman, spoke at an election fraud conspiracy occasion organized by Peters in Colorado. That occasion was headlined by My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell, who has funded a number of efforts to forged doubt on the validity of the 2020 election. Lindell has claimed he’s spent 1000’s of {dollars} supporting Peters’ authorized protection. Final fall, Peters, Orten and Anderson spoke on the conspiracy-driven Western Conservative Motion Community convention in Salt Lake Metropolis.
Orten, Anderson and their associates have already began to forged doubt on the validity of the just-completed 2022 major election outcomes as a lot of the candidates they supported are at present shedding their races. That features Lee, who trails Brandon Gordon by fewer than 2,000 votes. It’s attainable Lee or another person might use the information to assert fraud within the election to try to problem his loss.
Lee didn’t reply to questions from The Tribune about why he was requesting the information or whether or not he deliberate to maintain it confidential.
Utah County Commissioner Tom Sakievich joined Lee in requesting to see the detailed election knowledge. He didn’t reply to questions from The Tribune.
Daniels has not but determined how to answer Lee’s request. One chance is to let Lee and Sakievich assessment the information in a private setting however not give them a replica.
“Ideally, they shouldn’t share this info publicly,” Daniels stated.