By Steven Kovac July 13, 2022 Updated: July 14, 2022
Since a number of state and federal law enforcement agencies have shied away from taking on cases of alleged voter fraud, one election watchdog group has turned to America’s county sheriffs to do the job.
Catherine Engelbrecht, the founder of the non-partisan election integrity watchdog organization True the Vote (TTV), said she believes, “It’s the only way investigations of election fraud will move ahead.”
Speaking at a July 12, 2022, press conference called by the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA) in Las Vegas, Nevada, Engelbrecht told the audience of 300, which included many sheriffs from around the country, “We’ve been burned by state and federal investigators.”
Epoch Times Photo
Catherine Engelbrecht, founder of True the Vote. (Courtesy of Catherine Engelbrecht)
TTV used cellphone tracking technology, digital geo-fencing techniques, and government surveillance video, to document thousands of instances of illegal vote trafficking across key swing states in the 2020 presidential election.
Engelbrecht spoke of the reluctance of the FBI and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to seriously investigate the evidence presented to them by TTV.
She said witnesses have been doxed by law enforcement officials in key states and notes from active ongoing investigations undertaken in a few places have been “given unredacted to the press.”
The organization’s findings gained national attention by being featured in the Dinesh D’Souza movie “2000 Mules“—a film viewed by an estimated 25 million Americans since its release in the first week of May.
CSPOA president Richard Mack said in a statement, “We are asking for all local law enforcement agencies to work together to pursue investigations to determine the veracity of all elections.
“If allegations are incorrect, we want them exposed. If correct, we want proper investigations fully undertaken and the criminals responsible prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
“We ask for all Americans and public officials to demonstrate civility and cooperation as we pursue the truth. What we want is the truth; let the consequences fall where they may.”
Engelbrecht said TTV sued a Republican secretary of state in Nevada over what, she said, were unconstitutional changes to state election processes.
State Rep. Mark Finchem, an Arizona Republican, told the audience, “I am disgusted with some Republican secretaries of state who are acting worse than the Democrats.”
Gregg Philipps, TTV’s chief cyber investigator, told the crowd that his group has begun raising money to create grants to be awarded to sheriffs’ offices across the nation to make secure and surveil all absentee ballot drop boxes still in use.
Engelbrecht added, “We will cooperate with and give everything needed to sheriffs to accomplish this.”
Mack said, “CPSOA will be participating in True the Vote’s efforts to help provide local law enforcement with the information and resources they need to support election integrity.”
In Wisconsin, Racine County sheriff Chris Schmaling reported that his office was still investigating how severely mentally debilitated nursing home residents were able to vote in the 2020 election—despite zero interest from state attorney general Josh Kaul, a Democrat.
In Michigan, when Barry County sheriff Dar Leaf opened an investigation into alleged election fraud in his jurisdiction, he told the crowd that he was made the target of a government investigation.
Engelbrecht stated that since she founded True the Vote in 2010, she has been subjected to 23 audits.
“I sued the IRS. The case dragged on from 2013 to 2019, but we won.”
Mack reported that a county sheriff’s investigation in Yuma, Arizona, had resulted in three arrests for alleged vote trafficking.
Engelbrecht said that although “most states have not yet changed their 2020 laws and policies,” she remained “optimistic.”
Mack told The Epoch Times in a phone interview on July 11, “The states are not the puppets of the federal government. In our system of checks and balances, different levels of government control each other.
“The county sheriff is elected directly by the citizens and is directly accountable to them.
“My concern is that bureaucrats at all levels think they answer to no one.”
Retired Michigan sheriff Garry Biniecki served in law enforcement for 45 years, including three four-year terms as sheriff of Sanilac County.
Biniecki told The Epoch Times that a county sheriff is the only police officer in the American system elected by the people.
He said he fought many battles with the county board of commissioners, insisting that the office of sheriff was created in the state constitution and was therefore not to be considered one of the county’s departments.
Biniecki said, “The sheriff’s office is a big line of defense for the public. There is a lot of power that goes with it, but we don’t get to pick and choose which laws adopted by the legislature we will enforce.
“That’s why it’s very important to elect the right individuals.”
Biniecki said a lot can be learned if citizens would contact their local sheriff and find out where he or she stands on the role and authority of a sheriff.
“When they are more interested in keeping their job than doing their job, the mission is lost,” he said.
There are over 3,000 county sheriffs in the United States, nearly all of whom are elected by the voters.
According to Biniecki—federal, state, and county department policies are different from laws passed by elected representatives.
“I’ve had to say many times in my career, ‘Forget policy! What does the Constitution say?’”
Steven Kovac
REPORTER
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Steven Kovac reports for the National Team from Michigan. He is a former small businessman, local elected official, and conservative political activist. Steven is an ordained minister of the Gospel. He and his wife of 33 years have two grown children. He can be reached at steven.kovac@epochtimes.us
