Johnson County sheriff pauses controversial election investigation a month before primary
Johnson County Sheriff Calvin Hayden said Monday his controversial years-long elections investigation is no longer active.
The announcement came as Hayden fights for political life in a competitive Republican primary against Doug Bedford, a former undersheriff. GOP voters will decide on Aug. 6 whether to stick with Hayden or nominate another candidate for the November election.
“As with some cases, we must put this one on the shelf and take a pause,” Hayden said in a press release on Monday, which said “many have reported” that his office “was chasing an investigation that was a conspiracy theory.”
The sheriff’s investigation has produced no criminal charges. False conspiracy theories surrounding the integrity of Johnson County’s elections have taken root, fueled in part by Hayden’s investigation, which he has promoted repeatedly in front of conservative audiences.
Johnson County Commission Chairman Mike Kelly told The Star on Monday that he believes Hayden’s announcement is “long overdue.”
“As we’ve stated and known for years, elections in Johnson County are safe, secure and accurate and there’s never been any indication otherwise, other than this alleged investigation without basis and without merit,” Kelly said. “And so while I’m glad to see it’s put on pause now, I’m disappointed at the damage done to the trust in our elections office and to local government as a whole based on these salacious allegations or this sham investigation.”
Hayden’s investigation appears centered on Konnech, an election software company that has called the investigation “baseless.”
Los Angeles County has agreed to pay $5 million to Konnech CEO Eugene Yu, who sued over civil rights violations after he was arrested there in 2022 on accusations that he illegally stored poll worker data in China. The case was dropped a few weeks later, with the district attorney citing “potential bias” in the investigation.
Johnson County had used Konnech’s software to help manage election workers; the program had nothing to do with voting or voting information. The county stopped using the software in 2022.
