Exposing the Infrastructure Behind the Election Denial Movement

ELLY is a platform used by election denial activists who are pushing conspiracy theories about voter fraud. It aggregates personal information to flag voter registrations as potentially “suspicious” — but it relies on mismatched and outdated datasets that produce “huge numbers of false positives,” which increases the likelihood that eligible voters could be wrongly flagged and removed from voter rolls altogether. 

Despite the systems’ well-documented flaws, election deniers have been advocating for its use in more and more states. Earlier this month, ELLY’s founder Rick Richards appeared on a far-right podcast and indicated that the federal government is also using it: specifically the  Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Justice (DOJ). 

In addition to marketing it as a voter purge tool, Richards has been promoting using the system to track early and absentee ballots, raising concerns that ELLY could be used to challenge midterm votes. Richards said his system tracks “every absentee ballot from the time it’s requested” and “every early and election day vote from the day it’s cast.” In a later appearance, he offered to send county clerks reports “before they certify the elections.” 

With millions of Americans already voting early and by mail, those claims raise the prospect that the same error-prone matching that has wrongly flagged eligible voters could be used to raise doubts about ballots already cast and on the certification of results.

This week, we sued for records that could show whether federal officials are using ELLY, have communicated with ELLY, or have entered into agreements involving ELLY or its predecessor, EagleAI. We’re seeking communications, contracts, or other agreements between DOJ and Richards, EagleAI, ELLY, or ELLY’s providers.

Investigating the massive network working to undermine voting rights

This week, we published an explainer on the Election Integrity Network (EIN), a coalition of state-level advocacy groups that push for changes to the way the U.S. conducts elections, based on conspiracy theories about voter fraud. 

Though it may not be a household name, it’s highly influential. It has worked to change state election laws, mobilize mass voter registration challenges, and place its members in positions of power at the local, state, and federal level. Since its founding, EIN has grown to include affiliate groups in at least 39 states. EIN affiliate groups were a key part of removing tens of thousands of people from voter rolls in Ohio, worked with legislators to craft voter suppression legislation in North Carolina, and coordinated with the Georgia State Elections Board to push a measure that would make it easier to discredit election results. 

EIN has also supported EagleAI and ELLY. EIN founder Cleta Mitchell has helped roll out the EagleAI software to activists within EIN to aid in their mass voter challenges — complaints lodged with an election body that assert a voter is improperly registered to vote. This type of weaponization of voter roll maintenance has already resulted in the wrongful removals of eligible voters.

Already, our investigations have exposed the influence EIN has at the local, state, and federal level. Our explainer also breaks down all of our findings so far as well as the dozens of public records requests we’re using to investigate EIN’s activities and influence.

On the records

Why did DOJ drop its investigation into a member of Congress?

Last week, we published internal emails showing Rep. Andy Ogles’ (R-TN) lawyer emailed Ed Martin — then the head of DOJ’s Weaponization Working Group — to ask DOJ to drop an investigation into Ogles’ campaign finances. DOJ ended the investigation in May, while Ogles was in a contested primary race, with no public explanation. 

Martin has championed investigations of Trump’s political enemies. These emails raise questions about whether he was also using his office to squash criminal investigations into his allies.

We asked DOJ’s Office of the Inspector General to investigate whether political favoritism played a role in DOJ’s decision to drop its criminal campaign finance investigation of Ogles. “Political loyalty cannot determine who faces scrutiny and who gets a pass,” said our Executive Director Chioma Chukwu. “The inspector general must find out whether anyone intervened on Ogles’ behalf and why DOJ shut this investigation down.”

American Oversight in the news

• DHS sunsets its Acquisition Planning Forecast System (FedScoop)
• Civil Rights groups probe Census Bureau plan to drop race questions (The Black Chronicle)
• Rights groups demand ICE records as Georgia hunger strike nears day 20 (Tampa Free Press)
• DHS’ nearly $20 million contract for ICE to purchase gloves that send electric shocks (The Signal)

Other stories we’re following

• How Cleta Mitchell turned Trump’s “Big Lie” into a movement (ProPublica)
• DHS targeting naturalized Americans in voter investigations, civil rights groups say (News From The States)
• With ‘flood-the-zone strategy,’ Justice Dept. steps up moves as midterms near (New York Times)
• Trump officials charged 180 noncitizens with voter fraud. We looked at each case. (Washington Post)
• Trump administration has pushed 5m Americans off food stamps (The Guardian)
• Here are the U.S. attorneys who are carrying out Trump’s grievance agenda (New York Times)