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Misty Hampton, also known as Emily Misty Hayes, is the former election supervisor for Coffee County, Georgia. She worked as the elections supervisor during the 2020 election, and is alleged to have aided in the scheme to tamper with Coffee County voting machines in the wake of that election. She is one of 19 indicted defendants in the Fulton grand jury investigation into Donald Trump and his allies’ efforts to interfere with the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.
Background
Misty Hampton resigned from her position as the Coffee County Elections Supervisor in February 2021, after the elections board officials accused her of falsifying her timesheets. After resigning, she was hired temporarily to run a special election for Treutlen County, GA. The county claimed it was unaware of her involvement in the Coffee County voting machine breach and “needed somebody to run the elections and… didn’t have anybody [else]”. State investigators seized some of Treutlen County’s election equipment in the spring of 2023, due to Hampton’s history of tampering with voting machines, for further investigation. The results of this investigation have not yet been made public.
Why Was Hampton Indicted?
Misty Hampton was indicted in August 2023 on 11 felony charges in Fulton County, GA. These charges focus primarily on her efforts to aid the scheme to tamper with the Coffee County voting machines. The charges against her include:
violating Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (“RICO”) Act,
conspiracy to defraud the state,
two counts of conspiracy to commit election fraud, and
conspiracy to commit computer theft and computer trespass.
Security camera footage has been released showing Hampton was present in the Coffee County elections office on January 7, 2021 when third-party data collectors accessed the county’s server and voting machines to copy voter data and voting software. The third party “forensics” team came from a company called SullivanStrickler, and was hired by co-defendant Sidney Powell, a Trump lawyer that has since pled guilty to 6 criminal counts of conspiracy to commit interference with election duties. Hampton participated in this effort with fellow co-defendant Cathy Latham and former co-defendant Scott Hall, who pled guilty to five counts of conspiracy to commit intentional interference with the performance of election duties.
Misty Hampton would not speak with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation agents investigating the security breach in Coffee County without an immunity deal. She also repeatedly discussed the breaches in code over text message.