West Virginia Secretary of State Kris Warner (R), a 2020 election skeptic, was appointed to a key election administration post in the nonpartisan National Association of Secretaries of State.

Wednesday, September 24

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West Virginia Secretary of State Kris Warner (R), a 2020 election skeptic, was appointed to a key post in the nonpartisan National Association of Secretaries of State. Also in this week’s Eye On The Right: Cleta Mitchell, the notorious anti-voting lawyer and a favorite of this newsletter, may have to explain before a judge why she wants to make it harder for students to vote, the Tea Party Patriots pressure the EAC, and more.

As always, thanks for reading.

Matt Cohen, senior reporter



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West Virginia’s 2020 election skeptic secretary of state appointed co-chair of NASS

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The National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) — the country’s oldest, nonpartisan professional organization for public officials — announced last week the two new co-chairs of its elections committee: Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs (D) and West Virginia Secretary of State Kris Warner (R).

- Warner said ([link removed] ) in 2023 that he was “not in a position” to say if the election was stolen. “I don’t think that I’m qualified at this point to talk about what’s happened in other states and whether the election was stolen or not,” Warner added.

- Warner is the brother of former West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner, who is now an official at the U.S. Department of Justice. While serving as secretary of state, Mac Warner claimed ([link removed] ) the CIA stole the 2020 election from Donald Trump and helped ([link removed] ) fuel conspiracy theories that led to the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

- As co-chair of NASS’s elections committee, Kris Warner is tasked with “educating and informing NASS members about policies and practices related to election administration at both the state and federal level.

Cleta Mitchell may have to explain before a judge why she wants to make it harder for students to vote

- Voting rights groups in North Carolina asked ([link removed] ) a federal court to compel notorious anti-voting attorney Cleta Mitchell to testify in their challenge to a voter suppression law allegedly designed to disenfranchise young voters — particularly students.

- The pro-voting plaintiffs are challenging a 2023 law ([link removed] ) that changed rules for same-day voter registration, allowing election officials to throw out a ballot if just one piece of mail sent to verify the voter’s address is returned as undeliverable. Voters are not notified and have no chance to fix the problem. The law targets young voters — especially college students — who often move frequently or have different mailing and physical addresses.

- At a 2023 Republican event, Mitchell suggested Democrats make it too easy for students to cast ballots. “They basically put the polling place next to the student dorm, so they just have to roll out of bed, vote, and go back to bed,” she said.

Election conspiracy theorist Seth Keshel spreads disinformation in Michigan

- Seth Keshel — a former Army intelligence captain turned election conspiracy theorist who’s been praised ([link removed] ) by Trump for his anti-voting activism — recently wrote an article ([link removed] ) that promoted a popular false conspiracy theory that Michigan has more registered voters than citizens who are eligible to vote.

- After Elon Musk received criticism for claiming that Michigan has "more registered voters than eligible citizens,” Keshel claimed that in a new post, he “does the math” to prove Michigan’s dirty voter rolls. But his analysis made calculations using population numbers from different sources (the U.S. Census, USA Facts and the Michigan Voter Information Center) and different years.

- It’s a classic tactic by election conspiracy theorists: cherry pick data from various sources and years in order to cook the numbers to support a false narrative.

Tea Party Patriots pressure EAC to add proof of citizenship rule to voter registration

- In the wake of Trump’s attempt to order the U.S. Election Administration Commission (EAC) to add a documentary proof of citizenship rule to voter registration forms, America First Legal, the right-wing legal group founded by Stephen Miller, petitioned ([link removed] ) the independent agency to do it anyway. A public comment period for the proposal is open until Oct. 20, and the Tea Party Patriots (TPP) are the latest right-wing group ([link removed] ) mobilizing their supporters to put the squeeze on the EAC to do as Trump wishes.

- In a recent email to supporters, TPP co-founder Jenny Beth Martin urged supporters to submit a comment urging the EAC to add the proof of citizenship requirement. “It may seem like one of those actions that doesn’t matter much, or you might think other people will leave enough comments to drown out the Left’s — but both of these of [sic] thoughts are incorrect!” Martin wrote. “The EAC will not make this rule change if it looks like Americans don’t care.”

- Martin and TPP recently led a rally ([link removed] ) on Capitol Hill to pressure the U.S. Senate to pass the SAVE Act — the sweeping anti-voting bill ([link removed] ) passed by the U.S. House in April. Martin said in her call to supporters that if the EAC doesn’t add the proof of citizenship rule, “it will also make it much harder to get the SAVE Act passed because the senators who oppose it or on the fence will see that our side doesn’t care enough to submit a simple comment.”

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