You know what a “snipe hunt” is, right?
If not, Wikipedia is there to help (here): “A snipe hunt is a type of practical joke or fool’s errand … in which an unsuspecting newcomer is duped into trying to catch a nonexistent animal called a snipe ... a snipe hunt is a quest for an imaginary creature.”
The “stolen election” of 2020 is a snipe. The snipe hunters are gullible fools who believe Trump’s election lies and the conspiracy theories emanating from rightwing propaganda shops, and are still looking for nonexistent proof of election fraud that didn’t happen.
The most spectacular example to date is the Arizona GOP’s “audit” of 2020 Maricopa ballots that failed to validate its claims of voting fraud in the state’s most populous (and most Democratic-leaning) county.
Despite that infamous crash-and-burn, there are lots of little snipe hunts still going on all over the country, mostly by individuals or small groups of activists, and their chief investigative tool is public records requests.
By way of clarification, “FOIA” is the federal Freedom of Information Act, and applies only to federal agencies. Elections are run by state and local officials, who are subject to state public records laws, whose titles and provisions vary by state (for list with links, go here).
In some places, those officials are being swamped with requests for election records submitted by snipe-hunting election vigilantes, which are overworking their staffs and straining their resources (see story here).
It’s highly likely that the vast majority of these amateurs don’t comprehend what they’re looking at when the records are put in front of them. For example, if two voters have similar names, they may jump to the inaccurate conclusion that “aha! John Smith voted twice!” If they believe something that isn’t true, disproving it may be impossible (“can you show me this vote count wasn’t routed through a computer in Venezuela?”).
Election officials aren’t required to explain anything. Public records laws only require production of records, nothing more. But it’s not that simple. If conspiracists publicly make false assertions about what they “found” in the records, election officials may feel compelled to rebut their claims. That puts another time-consuming burden on these officials.
These snipe hunters aren’t performing a public service. They aren’t ensuring ballot integrity or improving election processes. Regardless of whether they’re trying to validate personal beliefs, or pursuing a larger and more sinister agenda of seeking to undermine public trust in elections to lend an air of legitimacy to schemes to overturn election results, they’re selfish people whose actions harm the public interest. And they’re costing taxpayers lots of money.
This doesn’t mean public records laws should be changed, or election officials shouldn’t comply with them. What’s needed is responsible behavior from these citizens, which begins with facing reality. The “stolen election” myth has been thoroughly debunked. What they’re looking for doesn’t exist. They’re playing the role of fool. It’s time for them to realize the joke is on them. There’s really nothing more to say about these activities.