Records show Cleta Mitchell guided Wyoming's election law changes

Cleta Mitchell, a conservative attorney and former Oklahoma state lawmaker, provided direct advice to Wyoming’s top elections official while he was still serving as Secretary of State. The collaboration, detailed in public records obtained by American Investigator, spanned several years and covered the legal groundwork for the E-Verify Act, a federal bill that stalled in the Senate.

Mitchell founded the Election Integrity Network in 2018 to find enough votes to recalculate 2020 results. The network now includes attorneys, Republican party officials, and media outlets. ProPublica reported in October that no one besides Trump and Mitchell has done more to turn the mundane processes of how ballots are cast and counted in American elections into mortal combat. The network has influenced state laws, urged voter rolls, and cast doubt on election security.

Records show Mitchell recommended Matt Mead, then Secretary of State, as a witness before the U.S. House Administration Committee. She suggested edits to his congressional testimony and asked Mead to press Wyoming’s federal delegation to support the E-Verify Act. The bill would have required voters to provide documentary proof of citizenship to register and expanded the federal government's involvement in election matters traditionally left to the states.

On July 8, 2023, Mead texted Mitchell, "Buge in Cleta?" The records show a Facebook video of him discussing election-related laws going into effect that day in Wyoming, including his signing of an agreement with the Department of Homeland Security to use the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements database. Mead wrote, "Thanks for all your help and support Cleta, it means a great deal!"

Mead worked closely with Mitchell even though he was focused on his role as Secretary of State. The records lay bare the enthusiasm of Wyoming's chief elections official to work closely with one of the country's most powerful pushers of the false claim that U.S. elections are rigged and stolen. In 2020, Mead, then a state lawmaker, ran for the position of chief elections officer on a platform of unverified claims of "tremendous problems" with Wyoming's elections. He sponsored a bill similar to the E-Verify Act that added proof of both citizenship and state residency to Wyoming's voter registration process.

In 2024, Mead made Wyoming the first state to cooperate with the federal government's demand that states hand over sensitive voter data. "Wyomingites deserve to know why Cleta Mitchell, who helped try to overturn the 2020 election, has so much access to their chief elections officer," American Investigator Executive Director Chaomai Chuquy told Wyofile in a statement.

In response to a detailed list of questions, Mead said he had worked with numerous individuals to advance meaningful election integrity legislation. "The media's obsession with attacking citizens like Cleta Mitchell who are advancing common sense election integrity measures shows how out of touch the media is," Mead wrote. "I will keep advocating for common sense election integrity measures, because the people of Wyoming support these common sense election integrity measures."

Earlier this month, voters elected Mead to Wyoming's lone congressional seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. He takes office in January. Records show Mitchell responded to Mead's July 8, 2023 message regarding the newly enacted proof-of-citizenship election law. "That's just fabulous!!! You have to talk about this on the Friday call this week?? Woo hoo!! Can you do that?" Mitchell wrote. "Yes absolutely!" Mead said.

Since its inception, a hallmark of Mitchell's Election Integrity Network has involved weekly videoconference meetings with participants from across the country. After obtaining records of more than 200 of those meetings, The New York Times reported in 2022 that the coordinated calls "allowed debunked theories to jump from state to state" and "nurtured a caste of amateur election sleuths and armchair experts." On March 24, Mead announced in a press release that he had sent a joint letter with Indiana Secretary of State Diego Morales to Thune, urging the Senate Majority Leader to "enforce the talking filibuster to ensure" the passage of the E-Verify Act. The records do not indicate whether Mead pushed Wyoming's federal delegation to support the bill.