Cleta Mitchell's Voter Suppression Charity Tripled Its Spending Ahead of the Midterms

Cleta Mitchell's Foundation for Accountability, Integrity & Research in Elections Fund, known as the FAIR Elections Fund, significantly increased its spending in the lead-up to the 2022 midterm elections, according to the organization's latest tax filing. The fund distributed over $4.5 million during the fiscal year ending June 30, 2022, nearly tripling its grantmaking from the previous year.

The tax filing reveals that FAIR allocated funds to various organizations involved in election litigation, restrictive voter-registration policies, conservative media, and poll-watcher recruitment. Many of these groups are longstanding allies of Mitchell and her movement. Additionally, FAIR paid $72,000 to Verity Vote LLC, a consulting firm owned by Heather Honey, Mitchell's longtime collaborator on election-fraud investigations. Honey was listed on the filing as the group’s vice president and director. Notably, this is the second consecutive year that FAIR made payments to Honey’s firm.

Honey was appointed deputy assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security in August 2021, where she oversees election integrity for the Trump administration. Before joining DHS, Honey had established herself as a prominent figure in election challenges. In 2020, she misrepresented incomplete Pennsylvania data to claim the state had more votes than voters, a claim that was repeated by then-President Trump in his January 6, 2021, speech to supporters. Her claim preceded the storming of the U.S. Capitol by many of Trump’s supporters. Honey also participated in the Arizona Senate's partisan review of Maricopa County's 2020 election, a six-month effort to find evidence of fraud that ultimately confirmed President Biden's victory. However, the review drew widespread criticism from election experts due to its methodology.

FAIR was founded by Mitchell in 2020 under the umbrella of the Trump-aligned Conservative Partnership Institute (CPI), where she serves as a senior legal fellow. Mitchell left her law firm following her involvement in a January 2021 call where then-President Trump urged Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to "find" enough votes to overturn Joe Biden's victory.

Neither FAIR's tax filing nor CPI's discloses the sources of their funding. However, CPI's most recent tax filing shows its grants to FAIR increased from $815,000 in 2021 to more than $6 million in 2022. While the calendar years do not align perfectly with FAIR's July-to-June filing cycle, they cover roughly the same period during which FAIR's grantmaking surged.

In addition to funding election-related litigation and policy, FAIR bankrolled ads warning Latino voters that casting a ballot could result in deportation. The organization also provided financial support to other groups engaged in similar efforts. These activities have drawn criticism from voting rights advocates who argue that such messages are intended to suppress voter turnout among certain demographics.

The increased spending by FAIR and its affiliated organizations underscores the ongoing efforts by some conservative groups to influence election policies and procedures ahead of the 2022 midterm elections. The activities of these groups continue to be a subject of scrutiny and debate within the broader context of election integrity and voter access in the United States.