"On Election Day in Shutesbury, population 1,700, voters place their marked ballots into a narrow wooden box on their way out of town hall. With the turn of a crank and a “ding!” of a bell, each ballot gets passed through a wheeled mechanism and falls into a bottom compartment of the box. White numbers on the manual counter tick up by one: The ballot is counted.So the town’s part-time clerk, Grace Bannasch, was confused when she began getting pummeled with public records requests demanding voting machine tapes and serial numbers, copies of digital ballots, and file names, all related to the November 2020 presidential election.She’s not the only one. Municipal elections officials across Massachusetts have been bombarded with these types of requests, which elections experts and political scientists say stem from supporters of Donald Trump who believe there are documents that will prove widespread election fraud in the 2020 election.The problem has become so pervasive that it’s caught the attention of Secretary of State William F. Galvin, whose office has contacted Attorney General Maura Healey and is working on a coordinated response."
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Franklin is also in this request cycle, as confirmed with an email from Town Clerk Nancy Danello:
"We get 2-3 sometimes more on a daily basis. Some of the requests that are coming through are very time consuming... and the majority all have the same language and are looking for the exact same information.....
But, we do our jobs to the best of our abilities with a smile on our faces :)"
Town Clerk page -> https://www.franklinma.gov/town-clerk
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| The Shutesbury Town Hall is a former school house. Across the country, election officials and staff are facing requests for information, harassment, and even death threats. Shutesbury Town Clerk Grace Bannasch is the sole election worker in the small town. LANE TURNER/GLOBE STAFF |
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