By Alexandra Ulmer

(Reuters) – Cleta Mitchell, a lawyer, joined a call with Donald Trump in January. He pressured Georgia’s highest election official to find enough votes for him to win the state’s defeat. This was an important part of Trump’s efforts to undermine the 2020 results.

A little over a year later the conservative long-timer was appointed to the advisory panel of an agency federal with the mission to assist states in conducting secure elections.

Surprise appointment of Mitchell to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC Board of Advisors) shows the struggle of once-fringe “electionintegrity” activists to get a foothold in U.S. institutions ahead of next year’s congressional election. This shows Trump’s continuing dominance in his party. Mitchell and others who support his stolen election lies are supported by powerful Republicans in Congress.

    Mitchell, part of a small network of Republican lawyers who have for decades pushed the idea that U.S. elections are vulnerable to rampant fraud, left her partnership at law firm Foley & Lardner days after the Georgia phone call. Since then, she’s been focusing her efforts on the promotion of “election integrity” in her role as chairperson of the conservative Public Interest Legal Foundation. Her work began on November 3.

According to election lawyers, voter fraud is uncommon in the United States, despite Trump’s claims about 2016 and 2020 voting.

    Mitchell’s appointment, which was made in August but only came to light this week after a tweet by a reporter with non-profit media organization Votebeat, alarmed Democrats and voting rights groups. Although the board of 35 members is advisory and has no specific power over voting procedures it critics say that Mitchell’s appointment provides legitimacy for someone who they claim undermines faith in American democracy.

Lisa Graves is executive director of True North Research. She was previously deputy attorney general at U.S. Department of Justice. Mitchell’s inclusion on the advisory panel demonstrates the dedication of the Trump party to rewarding people who make false claims.

    Mitchell pushed back against the criticism, saying “millions of Americans” are concerned about voting integrity.

In a statement, she stated to Reuters that the “real outliers”, are Americans who don’t support voter ID and promote unverified mail ballots. She also said that they work continuously to remove procedures to ensure election administration.

Four commissioners of the EAC stated in a statement that they were not authorized to criticize or comment on appointments made to the Board of Advisors.

    Mitchell was nominated to the board by conservative members on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (USCCR), a bipartisan agency that studies allegations of discrimination, including in voting rights.

She is part of an even larger Republican effort to control election administration. Voting restrictions have been passed in at least 18 Republican-led state this year. Backers of fraudulent stolen-election claims are running campaign for secretary of states – which is the top electoral official – within election battlegrounds states.

    ‘HOSTAGE’

    Mitchell said her role was clinched with bipartisan support by the eight-person USCCR, evenly split between conservatives and liberals. However, Michael Yaki, the Democratic Commissioner to Mitchell, told Reuters his bloc had been subjected to a hostage-like situation from conservatives.

The Commission’s conservative group refused to ratify Norma Cantu. Cantu and Yaki stated that Cantu was not satisfied with certain requirements.

Cantu stated in a statement that Reuters. “One of the conditions the Conservative made to ratify me as the chair was to establish a process to allow bipartisan nominations for the board of advisors on Elections Assistance Commission.”

    At the time, the USCCR chair put forward nominees, who were then ratified by majority vote, but Republicans asked each of the two political factions to put forward a candidate, Yaki said.

Initially, the conservatives wanted J. Christian Adams. He was a Trump-appointed USCCR Commissioner who, with no evidence, has alleged an “alien invasion” of non-citizens voting illegally in America. Adams spent many years suing individual counties for their removal from voter rolls. Adams was president of the PILF organization and also a member Trump’s electoral integrity commission. They disbanded in 2016 without finding any evidence of widespread voter fraud.

    When Democrats refused to accept Adams, work on the commission stalled, Yaki said.

    Eventually, the two sides reached a deal in which both factions put forward two appointments to boards such as the EAC’s and the opposite side selects one of them.

Adams stated to Reuters that selections had always needed to be bipartisan. “They weren’t. He stated, “We corrected that.” He said, “You don’t think that having a bipartisan approach is ‘being held hostage’.

    On April 30, the USCCR commissioners ratified Cantu and, minutes later, agreed to change the appointment process. According to an internal nomination email that Reuters reviewed, Adams and Mitchell were the names put forth by four of the conservatives on their commission.

    “Well, do you drink cyanide or hemlock? Yaki explained that this is a Hobson’s choice of nightmare proportions.

Adams was well-known because of his work at PILF, while Mitchell was “unknown variable”, Cantu stated. “I’m not happy with this appointment, and I would have preferred another.”