A Republican candidate for Secretary of State has filed a lawsuit against a Springfield resident who filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking Cast Vote Records from the 2020 presidential election in Greene County.
Shane Schoeller sued Laurie Huddleston in the Circuit Court of Greene County seeking a declaratory judgment as to whether CVRs are public records after Huddleston submitted a FOIA request for access. A Cast Vote Record is an electronic record of a voter's selections that is used for auditing purposes.
“There exists an actual justifiable controversy between the parties in that defendant Huddleston contends the cast vote record is open and must be produced in accordance with the provision of the Sunshine law, whereas the plaintiff has a justified belief that he is prohibited by law from releasing the cast vote record within the 22 months following the election and that therefore the cast vote record is a closed record under the Sunshine Law,” wrote Schoeller’s lawyer N. Austin Fax in the complaint.
Schoeller, who is currently Greene County clerk, blames My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell who unsuccessfully campaigned for the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee last month.
“He issues a call to action whereby he requests his followers and every single person in the country to go to their local county clerk's office to ask for Cast Vote Records for the 2020 election,” Fax alleged. “Lindell also provides a form on his website for his followers to request such cast vote records.”
Lindell was at the Springfield Expo Center in Springfield in Greene County last August for his Moment of Truth Summit where he spoke about voting machines.
When asked about the lawsuit at the annual Conservative Political Action Committee conference in Washington, D.C. last weekend, Lindell said Schoeller is a traitor to the United States.
“Shame on him,” Lindell said. “It's disgusting. He is absolutely shameful.”
Schoeller said he did not sue Huddleston because she did anything wrong.
"When there is a question as to whether a record can be produced to the public, Missouri’s Sunshine Law allows a public entity to take this matter before a circuit judge to determine if the record in question is closed or open," he told the St. Louis Record in a statement. "That process fosters transparency, as our Constitution provides that our Courts of justice shall be open to every person."
Schoeller has been county clerk since 2014 and was appointed to serve on the advisory board for the federal Election Assistance Commission (EAC) by Senator Roy Blunt in 2015.
“He's running for Secretary of State on election integrity, and, as far as I'm concerned, he’s not going to win anything because I’m going to put every effort I can against that guy,” Lindell told the St. Louis Record. “There's no reason you would do that to a citizen for requesting these records. It doesn't make sense.”
Linda Rantz, co-organizer of Missouri Canvassers, is also mentioned in Schoeller’s lawsuit.
However, neither Rantz nor Lindell is named as a defendant.
"Rantz has not only spoken at Lindell's Moment of Truth Summit, she also, upon information and belief, operates the Missouri arm of the website and blog, Frankspeech.com," Schoeller's lawsuit states. "Rantz has similarly made calls for citizens to request cast vote records of every county clerk in the state of Missouri."
FrankSpeech.com is part of a network of conservative media outlets launched by Lindell.