Trump backers flood local election offices with requests for voting records in apparent bid to trip up November elections

"Supporters of former president Donald Trump have swamped local election offices across the nation in recent weeks with a coordinated campaign of requests for 2020 voting records, in some cases paralyzing preparations for the fall election season," report Amy Gardner and Patrick Marley of The Washington Post. "In nearly two dozen states and scores of counties, election officials are fielding what many describe as an unprecedented wave of public records requests in the final weeks of summer, one they say may be intended to hinder their work and weaken an already strained system. The avalanche of sometimes identically worded requests has forced some to dedicate days to the process of responding even as they scurry to finalize polling locations, mail out absentee ballots and prepare for early voting in October, officials said."

It's happening in all 120 counties in Kentucky, Sam Adams reports for The Mountain Eagle in Whitesburg. That includes Letcher County, where the Eagle is based, and where local officials are trying to prepare for the November election while still dealing with the biggest flood in the county's history.

Creating chaos, not finding information, may be the point, some experts believe. Disruption could make it harder for officials to run local elections smoothly, thereby "giving critics new openings to attack the integrity of election administration in the United States," Gardner and Marley write. Experts "point to the identical nature of the requests as well as the number of duplicates individual counties have received — each one of which they must respond to, by law." But many requesting the information don't even know what they're asking for, and when clerks ask for clarification, they can't provide it.

"The use of mass records requests by the former president’s supporters effectively weaponizes laws aimed at promoting principles of a democratic system — that the government should be transparent and accountable," Gardner and Marley report. "Public records requests are a key feature of that system, used by regular citizens, journalists and others. In interviews, officials emphasized that they are trying to follow the law and fulfill the requests, but they also believe the system is being abused."