Election Integrity Updates & Action Items – with Cleta Mitchell – [Ep. 229]

Linda J Hansen: Welcome. Thank you for tuning in to this episode of the Prosperity 101® Breakroom Economics Podcast. My name is Linda J. Hansen, your host and the author of Prosperity 101® Job Security Through Business Prosperity: The Essential Guide to Understanding How Policy Affects Your Paycheck, and the creator of the Breakroom Economics online course.

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Every election is important. And our founders created a system that allows for the people to choose their elected officials. Freedom to vote is not a right given in every country, yet it is all too often taken for granted here, and we have not always guarded our votes with the care and protection needed.

I believe most Americans want free, fair, honest, transparent elections, but unfortunately, that is not what has always been the case. Over the next few weeks, I will be interviewing several people regarding protecting our elections. So stay tuned as we will be providing you, the listener, with action steps you can take to protect your vote.

My guest today is Cleta Mitchell. She is a repeat guest, a longtime friend, and a co-laborer for freedom. She's a well-known attorney, highly respected for her expertise in election, campaign finance, and political law. And she currently chairs the Election Integrity Network and the organization's mission is summed up simply, to make it easy to vote and hard to cheat. 

They want to make the goal of easy-to-vote and hard-to-cheat a reality in every voting jurisdiction in America. They want to protect the federalist system enshrined in the U.S. Constitution that vests the primary authority for election systems and administration in the states, not the federal government.

And they want to create a platform that supports and sustains conservative groups, leaders, public officials, and grassroots activists to be engaged permanently in protecting voting rights and the integrity of America's elections. 

Cleta also serves as the chairman of the Public Interest Legal Foundation, which she founded with J. Christian Adams and Hans von Spakovsky. It is the only conservative public interest firm devoted solely to election integrity. Cleta has served as outside counsel to countless conservative organizations and campaigns and is regarded as an expert when it comes to fighting back against Big Government overreach and corruption.

Our right to vote is a sacred privilege and it needs to be protected so we may keep America free. With that in mind, it is my honor and privilege to welcome Cleta Mitchell back to the podcast. Thank you, Cleta.

Cleta Mitchell: Well, thank you so much, Linda. I appreciate your inviting me and I'm always delighted to be with you.

Linda J Hansen: Well, it is always great to reconnect and it seems we don't talk for a while, but then we reconnect and just pick up where we left off. 

Cleta Mitchell: That’s true. 

Linda J Hansen: And I so wanted to have you on because as we approach the election season, election integrity is more in the minds of, you know, the average citizen. And while you and I are thinking about it all the time, and there's activists constantly working, we need to constantly remind the average voter what it is that they can do to protect the election integrity and to protect their vote.

There's so many stories swirling about election fraud, illegal voters voting, and there are countless court cases pending across the nation. While not all high-profile cases, even those from 2020 have had a hearing, many are in the courts across the land. 

And I'd like you to share some recent victories and let people know areas of concern while providing them with solid action steps to protect the integrity of our elections.

Cleta Mitchell: Well, thank you, Linda. There are a lot. There are a lot of court cases around the country. That's true. And I think one of the things that people need to stop and think back about is that before 2020 in the year, literally starting in 2019, well before COVID, Mark Elias, who's the Democrat's super uber lawyer, who you may remember was Hillary Clinton's attorney, and all of the Russia, all the Russia collusion hoax really flowed through his law firm and violation, I believe of the Federal Election Campaign Act. 

But of course, the rules don't always apply to our political opponents. They just apply to us. But they began in 2019, Mark Elias and all of the vast number of leftist voting organizations, non-governmental organizations, began suing states to try to invalidate duly enacted state statutes.

And they, having to do with election law, and that was going on in the spring of 2019, fully a year before anyone had ever heard of COVID. Once COVID hit, then they changed their tactics and literally told courts that cases that they had filed a year before needed to be, they needed to win because of COVID. So they used COVID as a convenient pretext to upend the election laws in state after state in 2020. 

And unfortunately, many courts agreed with them because everybody was so, they were also freaked out about COVID. And I think the thing that's important for people to understand today is that to their credit, the Republican National Committee and many state parties, Republican parties, have not waited until, they were not, they haven't been caught flat-footed. They saw what happened in 2020.

And so there have been a number of cases filed. I think the RNC has filed nearly 90 cases over the last three and a half years. But to address things like when a, when you have a Democrat Secretary of State like Jocelyn Benson in Michigan, who issued guidance and instructions to her, to the town clerks, who in Michigan are the ones who run the elections, and issued instructions to them about how to run the elections that were contrary to state law, and the Republican Party sued.

And in fact, it went up past, actually sued before the 2022 election, but have won that case and gotten her to have to rescind the orders that she sent out that were contrary to state law. 

They've just sued the city of Detroit because the City of Detroit has, the law requires that you have to have parity. You have to have equal number of Republicans and Democrats, particularly in the central count, where people are tabulating and adjudicating ballots as they come in after the election.

And they had hired about, I think, I want to say 40 to 50 of the 600 names that the Republican Party had submitted and filled all the rest of the slots with Democrats. So the Republican Party on Friday filed suit.

In Arizona, we have - you have Adrian Fontes, Secretary of State, unfortunately, and he issued an election procedures manual just about this time last year, which completely ignores statutes enacted by the legislature on how things are, how the elections are supposed to be conducted.

So there've been a number of cases filed and have gotten many of those illegal, unlawful instructions stricken so that the laws will be conducted more according to the statutes. Now, they have a, have they won every case? Have our side won every case? No. 

But I guess the point I would make is that there has been a lot of effort that has gone on in the last three and a half years where a lot of these election officials, who are trying to ignore the law or rewrite the law on their own have been called out and have been sued, and the courts have ordered them to follow the law. 

And then we had a Supreme Court decision last Friday. The state of Arizona, God bless them, they have been trying for more than 20 years to be able to require documentary proof of citizenship for people who register to vote in Arizona. 

And you can certainly understand how and why that's even more important today because of the fact that there are so many illegals pouring across this very porous, they're very porous southern border because of this administration, that Arizona has, the legislature passed a statute in 2022 that requires, that says that people who do not provide documentary proof of citizenship will not be given a ballot to be able to vote for presidential electors.

And there is also, it also, there was a, this is such a complicated case, but let me see. I'm trying to make this as simple as I can. There was a Supreme Court decision in 2013 involving Arizona's quest to require documentary proof of citizenship for anyone registering to vote. And the Supreme Court of the United States said that because there is a federal statute that requires every state to accept and use a federal voter registration form and on that form, Congress did not specify that documentary proof of citizenship could be required. 

Then Arizona's request to have that added to the form for Arizona only to have that state-specific requirement of documentary proof of citizenship, the Supreme Court, in a Scalia decision, said, well, Congress didn't say that. So the agency can't just add that.

And so Arizona, since 2013, had a two-tiered voter registration system. If you could provide documentary proof of citizenship when you registered to vote, well, then you could get a full ballot for the state. You could vote for the state and federal officials. If you couldn't provide documentary proof of citizenship, you would be given a ballot for president, Congress, and the U.S. Senate only, which is, of course, a huge problem. 

So the Arizona legislature tried to fix that, said that if you couldn't provide, if you were on the federal, if you're allowed to vote in the federal election, that was fine, but under the Constitution, electors are not chosen by public. They're chosen by the legislature. And so that they would not be allowed to vote, and they would not be given a presidential ballot. 

And last week, the Supreme Court, this has been bounced around to the lower courts in Arizona to the Ninth Circuit. It went up to the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court agreed to allow the requirement for documentary proof of citizenship to take effect immediately, even though it had been stayed by the Ninth Circuit.

And now, then the case goes back to the Ninth Circuit. They're going to duke it out over the federal ballot. And hopefully, that will get expeditious review, and the Supreme Court will address that and allow Arizona to ensure that only citizens are voting in federal elections. So that's a long-winded way of talking about Arizona.

But it's a really complicated, but it's kind of a good news, bad news, or good news, no news, really. I wouldn't say bad news, but the point is we're making progress in all across the country in the, in these efforts.

Linda J Hansen: Well, it is true. We're making progress and to listeners, I just want to encourage you.

I hear from people that just feel like it's hopeless like it's just going to get stolen again. Like, they just feel like, does my vote even count? And all of these efforts are important. So remember that what you see in mainstream media isn't necessarily what's actually happening at all the levels of the court system.

There are true patriots fighting all the time in nearly every state and every level of the judicial system to really ensure that we have integrity and transparency in our elections. And sometimes those cases are allowed to be heard. Sometimes they're with judges and things that won't hear the case because they don't think they're standing or this or that, and it gets rerouted and it gets sent back to lower courts or, you know, whatever happens, but it's always a process.

And so I just want to encourage the listeners that there are people fighting for election integrity, and they are fighting for transparency in our election process. And so, if you are listening, I really encourage you to support those organizations like the Election Integrity Network and others who are really working hard to make sure that we have truth and fairness in our election process. 

I, you gave a great update about Arizona, but I know some things recently happened in Georgia. Could you provide a short update to that? And then I also, you had mentioned Michigan before, and I know where we've had some victories. But I also know that they've had a recent law, was it a law that said you can't question the election results, and/or the governor did an executive order?

So remind me, I, just tell us about what's happening in Michigan with that too, because that was just crazy.

Cleta Mitchell: Well, Michigan is a serious problem because, in 2022, the Left had put, and there, the Democrats and their allies in the Left had put a ballot measure through the initiative process on the ballot in Michigan.

And this ballot initiative was a constitutional amendment, and they sold it to everybody as a voter ID provision, as a voter ID constitutional amendment, which it was just the opposite. And, of course, the Left has massive amounts of funding and money to promote these things.

And there was no money that was able to be spent on the, on television or on the side of defeating Proposition 2. And so it passed and they, Democrats took over the state legislature barely, and so for the last 2 years, they've been implementing these pretty horrendous election provisions in as quickly as they can in Michigan.

But they have this constitutional amendment now or that's in effect, and it really undermines everything that we are for in terms of election integrity. And it's pretty terrible. So they're working at a very real disadvantage in Michigan today. 

But as a result of that and other things, but they- the Michigan - the Democrats in the Michigan legislature, passed a bill to strip the bipartisan canvassing boards of their ability to oversee the election administrators and basically said they have no authority. 

They just have to, I call it Fauci-izing the election process where you're not supposed to, they're not allowed to question the administrators. They're supposed to just accept whatever they're told and respect the “experts.” 

And, of course, historically, you've had lots of checks and balances in the election process. So the Democrats watch the Republicans, the Republicans watch the Democrats, and the bipartisan boards oversee the administrators. 

Well, they, in Michigan, they have done not only stripping the bipartisan canvassing boards, but they've also enacted a statute that basically, and there are other states, other democratic blue states that have adopted these, don't question the election results, don't ask questions. And that it's misinformation and that you can be prosecuted. 

And in fact, there was a woman who received a letter, a cease and desist letter from the Attorney General just two weeks ago because she had raised questions on our Facebook post about some of the things that Jocelyn Benson, the Secretary of State, and others were doing in the election. So Michigan is a real problem. 

And for those of you who are listening and you think that the election is, you're not going to vote because you're worried about whether it counts. I'll just tell you something. If you want the whole country to become like Michigan and California and Washington State, well, just stay home, just don't participate because that's what will happen if we lose in this round of elections because we are just very, very close to having a complete catastrophe on elections, in my opinion, but we have been fighting hard the last three and a half years. 

We have literally hundreds and hundreds of people and state after state who are serving as poll observers, signing up to be in Wisconsin's election judges. But there's a need for poll observers in every state. And if you don't know how to do that, you can go to our website, www.whoscounting.us, and we, you sign up, and we will get you to the right place to sign up to be a poll observer anywhere in the country.

But this is our country. We can't just sit back and throw rocks and say we can't participate because it isn't good. We have to make it good. We have to take our elections back from these Left-wing crazies and radicals who have basically upended the system over the last decade right under our noses. So, it's up to us to take it back, just like it's up to parents to make sure they know what's going on in their kid's schools.

And you ask about Georgia. In Georgia, what we have is really pretty exciting, and the Left is, their collective heads are exploding, which, you know, that's always wonderful. But there is a five-member state election board in Georgia. 

And historically, it has, even when the Republicans control the legislature, because it's, there's a point, there's an appointee by the State Democratic Party, an appointee by the State Republican Party, an appointee by the Speaker of the House, and an appointee by the Lieutenant Governor who serves as President of the Senate. And then the Chairman is appointed by the Governor. 

Well, three of those, so you have one party, person from the Republican Party and then three appointees who are appointed by Republicans. So that should be four to one, right? Except that we've not had people on the board. The Republicans have not been committed to election integrity. So it's really been four to one with the Democrats until June of this year. 

And then the Speaker of the House appointed a new member, his appointee, he switched out his appointee. So now, all of a sudden, we have three strong rule-of-law pro-election integrity members, and they have adopted a number of rules for implementing existing state law, such things as requiring reconciliation, which is a reconciliation that the number of voters who turn up to vote has to match the number of ballots issued, has to match the number of votes that are counted, and that you have to take into account and go find if there are discrepancies, you have to find the discrepancies before you can certify so that you can make sure that the results are accurate.

Well, you think that everybody would be for accuracy? But you would be wrong, because Mark Elias again and all these Left-wing, the League of Women Voters, the NAACP, all these Left-wing groups come in, and they are furious. They've sent people in from all over the country to testify and today, they held a press conference. They allege that these Republican board members who adopt these regulations are, have violated, they've made ethics. They filed an ethics complaint against them, asking them to be removed. 

I mean, look, they don't like it. The bad guys do not like it when our side prevails. But we're in a very tough battle in Georgia. But so far, we think that there's really no, we expect them to sue. 

But I, they must know that they're on pretty thin legal ground simply because every one of these statutes, every one of these rules merely implements a state statute, but for instance, it requires that before they leave the polling place before the ballots are taken from the polling place to the county for central tabulation of the votes, that the number of ballots that are going to be transmitted have to be counted and they have to sign a piece of paper, have at least three people sign it that they counted, and this is how many. 

And that, and then when that is delivered at central tabulation, the people receiving it have to count and those numbers have to match. Now, that should be also something that people should be able to support. 

But again, these Left-wing groups have been showing up and opposing every one of these rules. But all these rules are doing is making it harder to cheat and making sure that the ballots and the ballot images are records that are retained, and that they have to match, and they have to match the votes, and they have to match the number of voters. It would really ensure that people would have more confidence in the elections, and of course, that's what we're up against, that the people on the Left don't want that.

Linda J Hansen: Exactly. You know, these are just common sense solutions, really. I mean, it's following the state laws, following the jurisdiction laws, that are there.

And it seems like when we press for that, when we want to make sure we have that accountability and, you know, to the average person saying that we want the number of voters and the number of ballots to match, you know, seems like the most common sense thing, but you start trying to make sure that happens, and you end up in legal battles. This is just insane. 

So, to listeners, I want you to be challenged but also encouraged. You can hear these challenges that she mentioned in Michigan. You can hear the challenges that they've fought in Georgia, in Arizona. These things are going on in every state. 

Like I live in Wisconsin and the Supreme Court last year said no more dropboxes where, you know, you could see the movie, 2000 Mules, and you can see, you know, how easy it is for people to just drop extra ballots into these dropboxes that are all over stuff. So they were going to be against the law. 

Well, then the fabric of the Supreme Court changed, and lo and behold, we have a new ruling that now all of a sudden, it's legal for dropboxes. So if dropboxes are legal in your state, then be part of the people part of the army who guards those dropboxes. Make sure that there's volunteers and people making sure that those dropboxes are guarded and protected, so that fraud cannot happen there.

There are so many areas where we can serve. And because this podcast goes to a lot of business owners and business people, I want to encourage every employer to make sure that they provide legal opportunities for their employees to register to vote, to know how to legally register. Please make sure your employees are legal residents are citizens before you provide them with opportunity to vote.

Please encourage, please encourage voting with your employees, but also go one step further and allow them time to vote, allow them time to observe at the polls, maybe time to be a poll worker. These are all things that we have to do as citizens to protect our Republic. And I think for so many years, we've all thought somebody else will do it.

Well, you know, the somebody is you. The somebody is you. The somebody is me. We are the people. We, the people, are the citizens that need to protect this nation. So whether it's Arizona, Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan, there's a lot happening in Nevada. 

I mean, there's so much, there's, you know, we have, like you mentioned before, the illegals coming in, and this is a big problem too, because illegals voting in all of these states across the nation, especially as they've been bussed in and housed and things, it's going to be a horrible problem to deal with. 

So please, everybody, if you care about the freedom and future for this nation, please step up to the plate. Go to whoscounting.us. Sign up to help. Go to your local county party, your Republican party, or go to your city clerk and say, how do I get involved as a poll worker? There are ways for you to be involved. 

And so, Cleta, if people want to reach you and they have more questions, how should they do so?

Cleta Mitchell: Well, I think the best thing is to go to whoscounting.us. You can follow me on Twitter, @CletaMitchell. That's probably the best way. One of the thing you mentioned, the only citizens voting situation, and we are worried about that. And I wanted to tell everybody that we have a website. 

It's called www.onlycitizensvotecoalition.com and we are, go there, sign up. You'll get our weekly newsletter. There are resources you can download, print signs, and organize things around in your neighborhood in your area. Go to your election board, and we are sponsoring a national week. A National Only Citizens Vote Week, and it is the week of September 15th through the 20th, because September 17th is National Constitution Day.

That day is when we celebrate and commemorate the anniversary of the ratification of the U.S. Constitution. So we want people to realize, we want everyone to know, if you're a citizen, celebrate the constitution, your constitutional rights and privileges to vote. But if you are not a citizen, it is illegal to vote in the U.S.

And we want to spread the message that everybody who's a citizen should register and vote. And if you are not a citizen, you should know it is illegal for you to register or vote in a U.S. election. 

So that's going to be coming up, and we want people, we want that message to get out, and we have a, we'll have a lot of resources and packets and materials and bumper stickers you can download, take to Staples and, you know, get people involved and engaged.

If you want to protect this country, it's time. As Linda said, you have to step up. You have to get involved. We're never going to have all the money that the Left has, but we have Patriots all over this country. And I hope that you're one of them if you're listening,

Linda J Hansen: Well, we do have Patriots, and I know many of them are listening.

So, Patriots, listeners, it is time for you to step up. Do not step back and think somebody else is going to do it and it's going to be inconvenient, or you don't have time or whatever. Do you really want our country to fall? Like we, it's really important that we preserve our election integrity and preserve our cherished right to vote.

So, Cleta, thank you so much. I want people to go to whoscounting.us and to the website, onlycitizensvotecoalition.com. So, thank you so much. 

Cleta Mitchell: Thank you.

Linda J Hansen: And I look forward to having you back again. We appreciate everything that you shared. 

Cleta Mitchell: Thank you so much, Linda. Thanks for having me.

Linda J Hansen: Thank you again for listening to the Prosperity 101® podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, share, and leave a great review. Don't forget to visit Prosperity101.com to access the entire podcast library, to order my newest book, Job Security Through Business Prosperity: The Essential Guide to Understanding How Policy Affects Your Paycheck, or to enroll you or your employees in the Breakroom Economics online course.

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