True The Vote has ZERO evidence of Voter Fraud Claims
The right wing voter "integrity" group tells GA State Court they can't prove any of their 2000 Mule claims
In response to a court-ordered subpoena filed with the Superior Court of the State of Georgia, the conservative voting integrity group True the Vote admitted that they have no evidence to show in the vast ‘voter mules’ conspiracy they claimed happened in the 2020 election.
The Dinesh D’Souza “documentary” 2000 Mules claimed that there was a Democratic Party and liberal money-connected conspiracy in the 2020 election wherein people (mostly Black people) were paid $10 a ballot to stuff ballot boxes with fraudulent votes. The movie has been widely debunked by many news outlets and fact-checking organizations
Voting rights investigative journalist Greg Palast and myself suffered through the film and debunked for my podcast. We noticed, like many others did, that there was only one real example of what they were claiming was happening in the film. They repeatedly showed the same clip over and over again - one of the Salem Broadcasting hosts and occasional political candidate, Larry Elder featured in the film even called it “This is a smoking gun! This is OJ Simpson being seen leaving the scene of the crime!”
“Excerpt from Vigilantes Inc.”
True the Vote and D’Souza claimed to have scoured through 4 million minutes of security footage. If that was true I asked, where are the other examples - where are the well… 1999 other mules? Now we know for certain, that there weren’t ANY mules. Even the Georgia Board of Elections which investigated these claims found nothing, and they’re not a bunch of people that normally want to prove that voter fraud is not a problem.
There is no new evidence at all provided by True the Vote in the response to the subpoena in answers to requests for more information there were only slight variations on “does not have in its possession, custody, or control identity and contact information…” You can see the full response at this link, but here are the three most pressing requests for information:
1. The “detailed account of coordinated efforts to collect and deposit ballots in drop boxes across metro Atlanta” referenced in your November 30, 2021 complaint (“Complaint”), including any recordings, transcripts, summaries, testimony, statements, witness interviews, notes, or other documents describing such account, including the identities and contact information for the people who gave such detailed account.
Response: TTV [True The Vote] does not have in its possession, custody, or control identity and contact information. Any otherwise potentially responsive non-privileged items not requiring retrieval of massive amounts of raw data from cold storage, that are within TTV’s possession, custody, or control are being provided.
6. Any recordings, transcripts, voicemails, summaries, notes, or other documents you’re your Georgia Election Integrity Hotline, tip line, or other hotline regarding allegations of ballot harvesting in Georgia.
Response: TTV’s records show it had contacts from approximately 117 Georgia citizens through its hotline in Georgia, but details regarding those contacts are no longer available due to the 2022 termination of the reporting service used during the Oct. 2020/Jan. 2021 time period.
9. The identities of the “ten hubs” in Atlanta that you allege participated in a ballot harvesting scheme in Georgia.
Response: TTV does not recognize or recall the term “ten hubs” as used in this context. That said, any non-privileged items potentially responsive within TTV’s possession, custody, or control are being produced.
Unfortunately, in 2024, the damage is already done, the conspiracy spread quickly through the right wing media sphere picked up and acted upon by politicians. The film made millions for D’Souza, and brought the Texas-based non-profit True the Vote to the forefront of the so-called “voter integrity” movement.
Former President Donald Trump cited the film and True the Vote’s work while on the campaign trail for months, even showing it at Mar a Lago, inviting Kyle Rittenhouse, Marjorie Taylor Greene and others to the ‘star’ studded event. On the local level politicians cited the film in social media posts calling for new voting protections to prevent it from happening in the future.
According to the Associated Press, the head of Texas Attorney General’s election integrity department held a private screening, saying in an e-mail “General Paxton will be present, among others, and I think they would love to have a good showing from our office…”
Texas wasn’t the only state that had election deniers going bonkers for this film - Pennsylvania’s Doug Mastriano also held a screening for constituents seeing it as proof of his belief that the 2020 election was stolen saying to WBUR, “We have ample video footage, now these drop boxes, in my mind, are illegal, and I believe that compromised our election.”
As we’ve now seen, no - they in fact did not have ample anything to prove that the drop boxes were illegal or part of a vast expensive conspiracy to steal the election in any state - Georgia, Texas or Pennsylvania.
The mules had left the barn - since the film's release drop boxes have been outright banned in Arkansas and South Dakota. Courts in Wisconsin have ruled them illegal. Pennsylvania, Kansas, and Virginia in 2023 saw bills to outlaw them, thankfully without success. Many other states have moved to restrict them such as in Georgia where they limited them in number (specifically where they were used most) and moved the drop boxes inside government buildings, making them only available during business hours, defeating much of the purpose of them.
Final note: The law firm that defended True the Vote in this case is the same that has been hired by one of the Georgia election interference defendants, Rev Stephen Lee who attempted to influence election worker Ruby Freeman’s testimony.