Exclusive: A top election conspiracy theorist was appointed to a DHS leadership position

 

Wednesday, August 27

Heather Honey, a leading election conspiracy theorist with close ties to anti-voting lawyer Cleta Mitchell, has been appointed to a new “election integrity” position at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). It’s an alarming appointment for someone so intertwined with the election denial movement, dating back to President Donald Trump’s efforts to steal the 2020 contest. Also in this week’s Eye On The Right: Pennsylvania and Oregon’s pushback against DOJ’s effort to obtain voter data, Fulton County, Georgia GOP drama and more.

 

As always, thanks for reading.

Matt Cohen, senior reporter

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Exclusive: A leading election conspiracy theorist was appointed to a DHS leadership position

• Heather Honey, a leading election conspiracy theorist — described by the anti-voting lawyer Cleta Mitchell as a “wonderful person” — has been named to a new “election integrity” post at DHS.
  
  
• Honey is best known as the founder of Pennsylvania Fair Elections, an anti-voting group and state partner of the Mitchell-led Election Integrity Network. Honey also founded the Election Research Institute, an anti-voting research and advocacy organization.

• Honey was active in Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss; the false claim that Pennsylvania had 205,000 more votes than voters — which Trump repeated at the Save America rally on Jan. 6, 2021 — appears to have originated with Honey.
  
  
• Honey’s title at DHS is deputy assistant secretary for elections integrity in the department’s Office of Strategy, Policy, and Plans. It appears to be a new role, and neither DHS nor Honey responded to my requests for comment to explain what, exactly, she’ll be doing. 

Pennsylvania and Oregon push back against DOJ’s latest efforts to obtain private voter data

• Pennsylvania and Oregon are the latest states to forcefully reject the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ)’s effort to obtain private voter data, according to letters I obtained.
  
  
• Pennsylvania Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt (R) and Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read (D) both cited DOJ’s lack of legal justification and privacy concerns in rejecting the department’s demand for voter roll data — including voters’ full addresses, driver’s license numbers and partial social security numbers.
  
  
• “Because your letters do not provide any legal justification for the Department to disregard this sacred obligation, we are unable to share such confidential information with you,” Schmidt wrote.
  
  
• The DOJ recently escalated its efforts to obtain sensitive voter data from states — including by threatening legal action. It’s still not yet clear why the department wants this information and what they plan to do with it — a question I’ll be tackling soon.

Fulton County GOP wants jail for commissioners who blocked appointment of election deniers

• Last week, Democrats on the Fulton County, Georgia Board of Commissioners blocked the appointment of two election deniers to the board of elections, after a court ordered the commissioners to approve them.
  
  
• In response, the Fulton GOP asked a judge to hold all five Democrats on the board in civil and criminal contempt of court, with fines up to $1,000 a day and up to 20 days of imprisonment.
  
  
• The court set an emergency hearing for later today to consider the GOP’s request. Keep an eye on my BlueSky account for live updates on the hearing.

Trump is still demanding Tina Peters’ release

• In a TruthSocial post last week, Trump demanded the release of Tina Peters — the GOP local election clerk and conspiracy theorist in Colorado who was convicted for her role in a voting system data breach. Trump threatened “harsh measures” if she is not freed.
  
  
• There’s little Trump can do to secure Peters’ release, since she was convicted on state charges. Nonetheless, Peters has become something of a folk hero in MAGA world, with election conspiracy theorists regularly calling for her freedom.
  
  
• Meanwhile, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser (D) recently asked the court to dismiss Peters’ habeas corpus petition to a federal judge to be released on bond. Weiser’s filing states the obvious: Federal court doesn’t have jurisdiction in this case. Sorry, Trump!

Steve Bannon said ICE will be stationed near polling places

On a recent episode of his podcast, former Trump advisor Steve Bannon made a chilling prediction: ICE agents will be stationed near polling places for the 2026 midterm elections. “They’re petrified over at MSNBC and CNN that since we're taking control of the cities, there's going to be ICE officers near polling places,” Bannon said. “You're damn right." Bannon’s warning comes as the Trump administration signals it will try to expand its takeover of Washington, D.C., via the National Guard, to other major U.S. cities.

Wednesday, August 13

As DOJ continues its hunt to obtain private voter data, states are slowly responding to the requests. Some have forked over the data, which was already publicly available. While others told DOJ to kiss off. Also in this week’s newsletter: PILF joins the hunt to access voter rolls, election deniers are targeting the judge that sentenced Tina Peters and more.

 

As always, thanks for reading.

Matt Cohen, senior reporter

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These states responded to DOJ’s requests for private voter data

• Over the past couple of months I’ve been tracking the DOJ’s unprecedented effort to obtain sensitive voting data — including access to voter rolls — from states across the country. In last week’s newsletter, I broke down the complicated answer to the question of whether DOJ has a legal right to access the voting data it’s demanding from states (Reminder: it varies by state!)
  
  
• But the states have been slow to respond to DOJ’s unusual requests — and for the states that have, the responses have been all over the place. A few states — like Alaska, Colorado and Florida — have granted DOJ access to their state voter rolls, since that data is public per state law.
  
  
• Other states — like Maine, Minnesota, Oregon and New Hampshire — have told DOJ to kiss off. (In the case of Maine, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows (D) specifically told DOJ to “go jump in the Gulf of Maine.”)
  
  
• Some states have responded to DOJ’s requests in part, providing them with answers to the questions they are only required to by law, but not forking over private voter data that the department doesn’t have a right to access. Read more about it here.

The Public Interest Legal Foundation is eyeing these states’ voter rolls… and involving DOJ

• Speaking of state voter rolls… DOJ isn’t the only group trying to gain access to them. The anti-voting group the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) recently sent letters to state election officials in Maine, New Jersey, North Carolina and Pennsylvania alleging mass inaccuracies on their voter rolls.
  
  
• In each letter, PILF stressed the “findings are not intended to be exhaustive,” but requested a meeting with state officials to discuss its findings. (Democracy Docket could not independently verify the accuracy of PILF’s findings.)

• There’s a twist though: For some reason, PILF copied the DOJ on each letter, indicating that they’re at least hoping to assist the department on some level in its quest to access the states’ voter roll data. It’s not totally surprising — Maureen Riordan, the head of DOJ’s voting section, came to the department from PILF.

Election deniers are now targeting the judge that sentenced Colorado GOP clerk Tina Peters

• Ever since Tina Peters, the conspiracy theorist former GOP local election clerk in Colorado, was sentenced to nine years in prison for her role in a voting system data breach, in a failed attempt to find voter fraud, she’s become something of a MAGA folk hero in the election denier community. Now, that community is targeting the judge that sentenced her.
  
  
• On X, Texas election conspiracy theorist Lori Gallagher encouraged her large MAGA following to file ethics complaints en masse against Colorado Judge Matthew Barrett, posting the template and instructions for her followers to file the complaint. “Barrett's 2022 retention election was RUN ON THE SAME DOMINION SYSTEMS Peters exposed as hackable and corrupt,” Gallagher falsely stated on X. “His job literally depends on those systems working properly.”
  
  
• President Donald Trump has repeatedly ordered DOJ to “secure the release” of Peters, but Peters was convicted on state charges, where DOJ does not have authority to secure her release.

Cleta Mitchell’s group praises Georgia judge for ordering election deniers onto Fulton County Board of Elections

Last week I reported on an order from a Georgia judge overriding the Fulton County Board of Commissioners’ 5-2 vote in May rejecting election deniers Julie Adams and Jason Frazier from the county’s board of elections. The judge’s order earned a round of applause from the Election Integrity Network (EIN), the group founded by Cleta Mitchell, the prominent anti-voting lawyer (and perennial subject of this newsletter) who played a pivotal role in Trump’s efforts to steal the 2020 election. The ordeal isn’t over: The Fulton County Republican Party asked the court to find the Board of Commissioners in contempt for their “willful refusal” to comply with the August 4 order to appoint Adams and Frazier. A hearing will be held on August 15.