Category: State Election Denier
Role: Independent candidate for Ohio Secretary of State (2022); QAnon podcaster
Priority: P1 (Sidney Powell’s “secret witness”; QAnon promoter; sought election control while claiming 2020 fraud)

Role

Terpsehore Maras (known as “Tore”) is a podcaster and QAnon believer who ran for Ohio Secretary of State in 2022. After being disqualified from the Republican primary for paperwork errors and insufficient valid signatures, the Ohio Supreme Court ordered her back on the November ballot as an independent candidate in September 2022. She received just 1.0% of the vote (42,753 votes) in the general election, which was won by incumbent Republican Frank LaRose with 59.3%.

Background

Maras hosts “The Tore Says Show,” a podcast where she promotes QAnon conspiracy theories and makes unproven claims about stolen elections. She became nationally known as Sidney Powell’s reported “secret witness” to alleged 2020 election fraud—a role that gave her credibility within election denial circles despite her claims lacking substantiation. Her attempt to run for Ohio Secretary of State represented an effort to translate online conspiracy theorist influence into control over actual election administration in a critical swing state.

Documented Actions

1. Sidney Powell’s “Secret Witness” to Alleged 2020 Fraud

Evidence: Maras was reportedly Sidney Powell’s “secret witness” used to support allegations of 2020 election fraud in various legal filings and public statements. Powell, who represented the Trump campaign in numerous unsuccessful election lawsuits, cited unnamed sources including Maras to support claims of Venezuelan software manipulation, Dominion voting machine hacking, and international conspiracies to steal the election.

SourcesDaily Dot, June 2022; Ohio Capital Journal, October 2022These claims, including those attributed to Maras’ “witness” testimony, were thoroughly debunked and resulted in defamation lawsuits against Powell (settled in 2024) and other attorneys who promoted them. Courts repeatedly rejected the election fraud theories as lacking credible evidence. Maras’ role as a “secret witness” gave her prominence in QAnon and election denial communities, despite her testimony never being subject to cross-examination or sworn deposition where false statements would carry legal consequences.

Pattern: Unsubstantiated “expert witness” claims; amplification of election conspiracy theories; no legal accountability for false statements

2. Ohio Supreme Court Ballot Dispute (September 2022)

Evidence: Maras was initially removed from the Ohio ballot for failing to submit enough valid voter signatures to qualify as an independent candidate and for paperwork errors in her filing. Election officials determined that too many of her submitted signatures were invalid or duplicates. Rather than accept this determination, Maras appealed to the Ohio Supreme Court, which ruled in her favor in September 2022 and ordered her placed back on the November ballot.

SourcesOhio Dispatch, September 2022; WOSU Public Media, September 2022This Supreme Court intervention was controversial, as it occurred after the ballot access deadline and required reprinting ballots. The ruling favored Maras despite her campaign’s failure to follow standard ballot access procedures that other candidates had met. While on the ballot, her campaign continued to promote the claim that Ohio’s elections were compromised—the very system that had just allowed her ballot access after initially failing to qualify.

Pattern: Exploiting legal system to gain ballot access after failing requirements; claiming system is fraudulent while benefiting from court intervention

3. QAnon Podcast Promotion and Voting Machine Conspiracy Theories (2020-2022)

Evidence: Through “The Tore Says Show,” Maras has promoted QAnon conspiracy theories and made unproven claims about voting machines being manipulated to steal elections. Her platform focuses on election integrity issues, with regular content claiming that electronic voting systems are vulnerable to hacking and that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump through systematic fraud.

SourcesOhio Dispatch coverage; Daily Dot profileDuring her 2022 campaign, Maras continued hosting the podcast while running for an office that would oversee the very election systems she claimed were fraudulent. Her campaign platform included eliminating all voting machines and returning to a paper ballot system—a position consistent with her podcast’s messaging but impractical for a state the size of Ohio (approximately 8 million registered voters) and unsupported by evidence of actual voting machine vulnerabilities affecting Ohio elections.

Pattern: Media platform amplifying disinformation; seeking office to dismantle systems while providing no evidence of actual problems

Pattern Analysis

Maras represents a distinct threat pattern within the public-corruption-ombudsman skill’s “election denialism” category: the conspiracy theory media personality seeking formal government power over the institutions targeted by their disinformation. Her trajectory from QAnon podcast host to Sidney Powell “secret witness” to secretary of state candidate demonstrates how online radicalization can translate into attempts at institutional control.

Related profiles: mark-finchem-profile (AZ candidate with similar platform), kristina-karamo-profile (MI candidate with conspiracy theories), jim-marchant-profile (NV candidate and America First SoS organizer), terpsehore-maras-profile

Related skills: first-amendment-legal-expert (disinformation and speech limits), fifth-amendment-legal-expert (due process in elections), voting-rights-law-expert, tenth-amendment-legal-expert (state election administration)

Severity Assessment

Immediate harm: Low – received only 1% of vote; never came close to office Democratic erosion: High – active disinformation platform amplifying false fraud claims; sought power to dismantle secure election systems Authoritarian marker: Big Lie promoter seeking institutional control; QAnon conspiracy theorist targeting democratic processes; unaccountable “witness” testimony

Accountability Status

Current status: Defeated candidate; continues podcast operations Legal exposure: None documented; Powell settled defamation cases but Maras was not named defendant Public accountability: Ohio voters decisively rejected candidacy (1% of vote); mainstream media labeled as conspiracy theorist and QAnon promoter

Cross-References

Skills: public-corruption-ombudsman, voting-rights-law-expert, first-amendment-legal-expert, fifth-amendment-legal-expert

Related profiles: mark-finchem-profile, kristina-karamo-profile, jim-marchant-profile, h-brooke-paige-profile, rayla-campbell-profile

Topics: secretary of state elections, QAnon conspiracy theories, Sidney Powell election lawsuits, voting machine conspiracies, Ohio elections, 2022 midterm elections, The Tore Says Show podcast, Big Lie, election denier media, ballot access disputes

Investigative trail pointers (public records)

Education only — verify independently. Absence of hits is not proof.

Use public-records-research-specialist, corporate-intelligence-investigator, and public-corruption-ombudsman evidence tiers.

Factual correction requests: If you believe information in this profile is incorrect, please contact factcheck@patriot.university with your name (optional), the specific claim, and any supporting documentation. We review all submissions and correct verified errors promptly.

For Trump Supporters: Questions Worth Considering

Maras is a QAnon podcaster who served as Sidney Powell’s reported “secret witness” providing testimony about alleged 2020 election fraud including Venezuelan software manipulation and Dominion voting machine conspiracies. These claims were never subject to cross-examination under oath and were rejected by courts in over 60 cases. Powell’s lawsuits based on these theories were dismissed and Powell was later disbarred. Maras then ran for Ohio Secretary of State — the office that administers elections. She was initially disqualified for failing to file sufficient valid signatures, then was placed back on the ballot by the Ohio Supreme Court. She received 1% of the vote.

Here’s a question worth sitting with: Maras was a “secret witness” who provided testimony that was never tested under cross-examination, in lawsuits that were dismissed, to an attorney who was later disbarred for advancing those claims. The claims — about Venezuelan software and Dominion machine hacking — have been found to be without factual basis. Dominion sued Powell and settled for a substantial undisclosed sum. Maras then ran to control the very election system her testimony was used to discredit. Ohio voters gave her 1% of the vote. Sidney Powell was disbarred. John Eastman was disbarred. Rudy Giuliani was disbarred. The lawyers who built the legal case for stolen elections faced professional consequences when their claims were tested by disciplinary bodies. The witnesses who supported those claims — whose testimony was never tested under oath — faced no such consequences. Does the asymmetry of consequences between the lawyers and the witnesses tell you anything about the quality of the underlying claims?

Sources

• Daily Dot: “A QAnon believer fighting electoral fraud didn’t make the ballot to be Ohio’s head of elections—she’s running anyway” (June 2022) (https://www.dailydot.com/debug/qanon-follower-terpsehore-maras-ohio-secretary-state-elections/)
• Ohio Capital Journal: “Election-denying Secretary of State candidate asks state supreme court to allow ‘election observers'” (October 18, 2022)
• WOSU Public Media: “Election denier back on November ballot in Ohio Secretary of State race” (September 21, 2022)
• Columbus Dispatch: “Ohio Supreme Court puts QAnon podcaster back on ballot for Secretary of State race” (September 20, 2022)
• Ballotpedia: Terpsehore Maras (https://ballotpedia.org/Terpsehore_Maras)

Last Updated: May 11, 2026
Profile Status: Defeated candidate; active podcast
Next Review: Annually