By Gretchen Garrity
A detailed document has just been released that exposes three instances of alleged lawfare against Missouri citizens (all women) by the Secretary of State's Office.
Quoting from the document, the three instances include:
"First Scenario: If the Missouri Secretary of State seeks the criminal prosecution of a citizen
activist who previously stated in writing to the SOS that she perceived a letter from them to
her contained a “thinly veiled threat,” and, if the grounds the SOS is using for criminal
charges is based on election complaints from two members of an opposing political party,
and, if the total ‘evidence’ collected by the SOS is deficient and/or false, could this be the
weaponization of the Secretary of State’s office? What if the charges sought against the
citizen activist are the same as a 2022 complaint against a different person,2 and the
Secretary of State determined these similar charges in 2022 were “not an election
offense”?3 (This scenario begins on page 3)
Second Scenario: If the Missouri Secretary of State coordinated with county officials to file a
lawsuit against citizens who exercised their rights for open records requests, could this be
lawfare by the Secretary of State and other elected officials against citizens? (This scenario
synopsis is on page 16)
Third Scenario: If a citizen activist has the courage to research and collect proof of election
violations, to carry the burden of taking the fight to the courts, to sacrifice time and treasure
for the sake of securing elections, only to learn that the primary gatekeeper blocking this
case from getting into court is the chief election officer for the state, could this be lawfare by
the Secretary of State? (This scenario synopsis is on page 17)"
The first instance involves Linda Rantz, a Missouri elections activist with Cause of America, who wrote the eManual for Hand Counting. Rantz has been at the forefront of election reform, seeking to share and teach hand counting, and authored the document referenced here: "Lawfare and the Weaponization of the Missouri Secretary of State's Office." You can access the document HERE. UPDATE: If the link does not work, try this ONE. The links keep breaking for some reason.
In Rantz' case, after she made a complaint regarding improper handling of post-election hand-counted ballots in a local Osage County election, "The County Clerk and the Secretary of State wanted to “prove or disprove the accuracy of the hand count.” For this reason, after the election, hand counted ballots were unsealed by the County Clerk, Nicci Kammerich, and the Front Desk Clerk, Brooke Dudenhoeffer, and run through a Dominion tabulator.6 This was NOT done in the presence of a bipartisan team, as required by law.
There was also a complete recount of every ballot to ensure that the hand count teams were
“accurate,” as stated by one of the election judges who recounted the ballots.7
According to Dudenhoeffer, everything done post-election was either under the “guidance” or
“instructions” of the “Secretary of State’s Office.”
Soon after her complaint was made, Rantz received a communication from the Secretary of State's Office finding no validity to her complaint, but accusing her of lying. "Likewise, though you swore or affirmed in your complaint that the allegations you alleged were true to the best of your knowledge, a review of your complaint demonstrates they were not. I recommend you be more careful next time you file an election complaint with this office."
According to Rantz, "Although a more ‘toned-down’ version was subsequently sent to me,12 my 40+ years of experience working for lawyers gives me an understanding of threats written in legalese.
I have many contacts in the legal and law enforcement fields. Those with whom I shared the reply
letter from the Secretary of State agreed that it was an apparent threat."
There is much more and I recommend readers take the time to read the document. The body of the three instances runs 17 pages, with a total of 67 pages of references, links, documents, etc., to back up the alleged lawfare on the part of the Secretary of State's Office.
The second instance of alleged lawfare is almost unbelievable. Greene County Clerk, Shane Schoeller, who is currently running for Secretary of State, sued a citizen for merely making a Sunshine request for the Cast Vote Records of the 2020 election. According to the document, "Because of Sunshine Law Requests, it was revealed that the Missouri Secretary of State was involved in not only the Greene County lawsuit against a citizen, but Camden County was apparently also planning to sue one of their citizens.
An email47 from the Greene County Attorney, Austin Fax, to the Secretary of State’s attorney, Jesus
Osete, states, “We have discovered that Camden County’s software is potentially different than
Greene County’s software. So, we are going to hold off on including Camden County as a Plaintiff for
now.”
Note: Green County Attorney, Austin Fax, is also the Christian County Attorney.
The third instance of alleged lawfare on the part of the Secretary of State's Office concerns Ali Graef who has worked to expose the lack of certification of voting machines in the state. Referenced in the document is an interview that David Rice conducted with Graef:
