SoS Raffensperger has had it with all these motherfucking election deniers in his motherfucking state

Wonkette reports: Republicans can’t stop buying tickets for the 5:15 Train of Consequences to Finding Out.

True the Vote (TTV) has been kicking around the wingnutosphere for years, and has recently been dogged by allegations of tax shenanigans and “loans” made to its founder Catherine Engelbrecht. But two years ago it was flying high, after its preposterous claims of election fraud were featured in Dinesh D’Souza’s “documentary” 2000 Mules. TTV claimed to have uncovered rings of ballot stuffers by correlating bulk-purchased cellphone data to prove that “mules” were delivering batches of fraudulent ballots from “stash houses” to dropboxes. They also claimed to have video of those “mules” stuffing ballots into the boxes in violation of state law.

No word on whether the mules had calves like cantaloupes from hauling ballots around Georgia.

That second allegation had already netted them one defamation lawsuit from a Georgia man who dropped off ballots for himself and his family, only to find the security tape of him played over and over again in the movie as he’s described as a ballot stuffer.

Of course their victim is Black, and the movie shows his face and license plate. I hope he gets everything from everyone involved, including their barrels and suspenders.

And now they’ve got themselves another, as they were stupid enough to file an election complaint citing the cell phone “evidence” and claiming to have an informant who admitted to being a part of a ballot harvesting scheme.

TTV’s problem is fairly straightforward. And 100% self-inflicted. If you tell investigators you have evidence of a crime, the investigators are going to want the evidence. If you refuse to hand over the evidence, you become the investigator’s problem.

This also created the bizarre situation where TTV had publicly accused a real person who was legally casting votes of being a “ballot stuffer” while it also claimed it was honor-bound to protect the identity of an imaginary one.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution first flagged the case and posted all the documents online, including TTV’s original November 30, 2021, complaint to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. In it, they refer to a “John Doe” who “admitted to personally participating and provided specific information about the ballot trafficking process.” TTV insisted that it could not reveal this very real person’s identity because of an “agreement of anonymity.”

Another problem, also self-inflicted: “My informant, they’re from Canada, you don’t know them,” doesn’t make the investigators go away. Even if I assume this person exists – and I do not – and TTV promised to keep their identity secret, that’s not the investigator’s problem. Plus, TTV claimed it had a ton of additional evidence that supported its complaint, but was refusing to hand over. Because.

This set off 15 months in which TTV tried to wriggle out of complying with the subpoena. Finally, in May of 2023, TTV sought to withdraw its original complaint to avoid disclosing “personal identifying information of persons to whom Complainants have pledged confidentiality and who came forward at risk to their personal safety and security to varying degrees based on their individual circumstances.”

Creating several more J. Does who had to be protected didn’t work either.

I also wonder if their fellow raveners ever asked TTV why it was interfering with the Orange One’s triumphant return to the White House for the sake of some people who helped steal the election. That would be a fun conversation to watch.

Where once TTV had claimed it was protecting secret sources, it now insisted that it had already handed the information to the Georgia Bureau of Investigations (GBI). It further claimed to have deleted all the contact information for John Doe, as well as the recordings from its tip line.

“We gave you the information, that we repeatedly we said we wouldn’t give you. And we destroyed evidence. What do you say about that, copper?”

It also made the apparently contradictory claims that it could not verify “the identities and contact information for the cell phone owners” tracked by their geospatial data, but that one of them was said “bartender who came in from South Carolina,” whose identity they also did not know.

Also, maybe we lied.

In June TTV, which supposedly was trying to right a horrific wrong, reached the “Pull laws out of our ass and wave them while gibbering in hopes the enemy will give up” phase of attempting to dodge the subpoena.

By the way, TTV’s attorney, Michael Wynne, was also involved in trying to overturn the results of Arizona’s gubernatorial election.

Anyway, on Monday Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced that he has had enough of their their shit.

“After multiple good faith efforts by the SEB and its counsel to obtain the requested information and documents, True the Vote continues to indifferently vacillate between statements of assured compliance and blanket refusals, leaving the SEB with no recourse but to report, per the foregoing statute, such conduct to this Court and seek an immediate remedy,” they wrote.

“Allegations of election irregularities need to be accompanied by evidence,” Raffensperger told the AJC. “I encourage anyone with such evidence to turn it over and it will be fully investigated. But if you don’t have the evidence, don’t come into Georgia and make far-fetched and hyperbolic claims. It’s long past time to put up or shut up.”

People who post off-topic comments have purchased 2,000 copies of 2,000 Mules.