Cleta Mitchell

Cleta Mitchell speaks at the Pennsylvania Leadership Conference in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, on 1 April 2022. Photograph: Matt Rourke/AP Cleta Mitchell speaks at the Pennsylvania Leadership Conference in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, on 1 April 2022. Photograph: Matt Rourke/AP The rightwing election lawyer Cleta Mitchell, a key ally of Donald Trump as he pushed bogus claims of fraud to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 win, is facing intense fire from voting watchdogs and bipartisan criticism for urging curbs on college student voting, same-day voter registration and absentee voting. The scrutiny of Mitchell, who runs the Election Integrity Network at the pro-Trump Conservative Partnership Institute to which a Trump Pac donated $1m, was sparked by recent comments Mitchell made to Republican donors, and a watchdog report criticizing her advisory role with a federal election panel. Long known for advocating stricter voting rules that are often premised on unsupported allegations of sizable voting fraud, Mitchell last month promoted new voting curbs on students in a talk to a group of wealthy donors to the Republican National Committee, efforts that critics call partisan and undemocratic. Mitchell’s private RNC address to rich donors zeroed in on curbing college campus voting rules, automatic mailing of ballots to registered voters and same-day voter registration, as the Washington Post first reported. The talk by Mitchell, who has done legal work for Republican committees, members of Congress and conservative groups such as the National Rifle Association, focused on college campuses in key swing states including Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, Virginia and Wisconsin, all of which have large college campuses. In an audio of her remarks obtained by liberal journalist Lauren Windsor, Mitchell slammed college voting procedures. “What are these college campus locations? What is this young people effort that they do? 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.” Further in one part of her presentation cited by the Post, Mitchell charged blithely that “the Left has manipulated the electoral systems to favor one side … theirs. Our constitutional republic’s survival is at stake.” It’s unclear if the RNC will back the latest proposals made by Mitchell, who the committee has worked with previously. But an RNC spokesperson offered effusive praise of Mitchell to the Post, saying: “As the RNC continues to strengthen our Election Integrity program, we are thankful for leaders like Cleta Mitchell who do important work for the Republican ecosystem.” But voting rights watchdogs voice alarm at Mitchell’s proposals to the RNC donor crowd. “Mitchell’s comments behind closed doors give up the game,” said Danielle Lang, the lead voting rights litigator with the non-partisan Campaign Legal Center. “The current wave of additional voter restrictions is about only one thing: punishing disfavored populations of voters.” Lang added: “Sadly, we should not be surprised that Mitchell, who was central to attempts to overturn the will of the people in 2020, speaks so blithely about attacking voters she dislikes.” Similarly, Republicans and Democrats alike deplore Mitchell’s comments to the RNC contributors. “It’s absurd for Cleta Mitchell or others to suggest our path to victory is by making it harder for young people to vote,” said the ex-Republican congressman Charlie Dent. “Republicans should not fear how people vote. Good candidates with good messages should resonate with voters.” “Mitchell seems to have a very difficult time separating her partisan agenda from the responsibility we all have to uphold a basic democratic respect for the right to vote,” the Democrat House member Jamie Raskin told the Guardian. Mitchell did not respond to a Guardian request for comment about her RNC remarks. Besides the firestorm over Mitchell’s RNC remarks, she is facing more heat related to other r