American Oversight Statement on EAC Adviser Cleta Mitchell’s Anti-Voting Presentation

American Oversight released a statement in response to a new report that attorney Cleta Mitchell, who serves on the advisory board for the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, recently urged Republican donors to work together to limit access to voting by mail and on college campuses.

On Thursday, the Washington Post reported that Mitchell gave a presentation this past weekend in which she said that conservatives should work together to limit voting access on campuses, same-day registration and the automatic mailing of ballots to registered voters.

Statement from American Oversight Executive Director Heather Sawyer: 

“Cleta Mitchell isn’t just another Trump lawyer seeking to make it harder for students or working people to vote. She’s an official adviser to the Election Assistance Commission, which gives her unique access to election officials who set voting rules. We know from emails we obtained that Mitchell used her post at the EAC to push her anti-voting agenda, including disparaging a voting rights organization and promoting the idea of potential legal challenges to absentee voting procedures. These latest comments demonstrate that Mitchell may also be exploiting her EAC role to undermine student voting, voter registration, and mail-in voting.”

Last year, American Oversight filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the Election Assistance Commission seeking the release of emails sent by Mitchell. Documents obtained from that lawsuit, as well as in response to other FOIA requests, revealed correspondence between Mitchell and right-wing groups from 2020 as well as 2022, after she joined the board, in which she used unfounded claims of voter fraud to oppose expanded access to absentee and mail-in voting.

See the latest Cleta Mitchell emails American Oversight obtained here. More information about American Oversight’s lawsuit and other records uncovered can be found here.