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Wednesday, July 9 |
Three Republican secretaries of state spoke at a conference of election deniers and they won’t tell us what they said — that’s a huge problem. Also in this week’s Eye On The Right: Nevada anti-voting activist (and EOTR favorite) Chuck Muth has a change of heart on voter list maintenance procedure conspiracies.
As always, thanks for reading.
— Matt Cohen, Senior Reporter |
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Three GOP Secretaries of State Spoke at a Conference of Election Deniers. They Won’t Tell Us What They Said. |
“You know you’re hardcore on voter integrity when, on July 5th, you’re at the Ahern Hotel all day doing voter integrity,” Steve Bannon said on his podcast last week when he introduced his guest, the prominent anti-voting activist Matt Meck.
Meck joined Bannon to plug a day-long election integrity conference in Las Vegas over the holiday weekend that featured a cavalcade of notable election deniers and conspiracy theorists: Arizona state Sen. Mark Finchem; Peter Ticktin, lawyer for convicted election denier Tina Peters; Jan. 6 rioter Treniss Evans; former GOP congressman Curt Weldon, and, of course, Bannon, who gave the keynote address.
The conference, which Meck dubbed “Election Singularity: Proactive Prevention by We The People,” also featured a virtual conversation with three Republican secretaries of state: Chuck Gray of Wyoming, Denny Hoskins of Missouri, and Kris Warner of West Virginia. Meck told Bannon the secretaries would talk about their midterm preparations in light of Trump’s anti-voting executive order — hinting that there may be more election-related orders to come.
The event wasn’t recorded or livestreamed anywhere — the only way to hear what was discussed was to be in Vegas on Fourth of July weekend and pay the $20 entry fee.
So I reached out to the offices of each of the secretaries to ask for more information about their remarks.
Diane Nester, a spokesperson from Warner’s office, said that he “didn’t speak from a prepared speech” and explained that it was just more of a Q&A session with the three secretaries of state, but didn’t elaborate any more than that.
Rachael Dunn, the director of communications for Hoskins’ office, told me that Hoskins’ participation “was a last minute addition to his calendar.” She added that she would be “happy to pass along any questions” I had about his appearance at the conference. I asked her if there are any specifics about midterm election preparations — particularly as they related to Trump’s executive order — that were discussed at the conference. I’m still waiting for a reply.
Gray’s office didn’t respond to my inquiry.
Secretaries of state are the top election officials in their respective states, elected to administer fair and free elections — and ensure that the voting process is protected from all sorts of threats, from cybersecurity attacks to disinformation campaigns. For three secretaries of state to speak at an election integrity conference organized by conspiracy theorists and election deniers, without their remarks being available for their constituents to watch or hear is a huge problem.
What did they talk about in regard to their plans for the upcoming midterm elections? Numerous parts of Trump’s anti-voting executive order are currently blocked by the courts. Do they plan to implement the order anyway? What do they see as the biggest voting issues in their respective states, and how do they plan to address them? Numerous studies and reports consistently show that instances of voter fraud are extremely rare, yet the speakers at the conference peddle in disproven conspiracy theories that claim otherwise. Do they agree?
Of course, we’ve already learned a lot about what these elected officials believe. Hoskins wants to hand count all ballots, and ban dropboxes, mail voting, and absentee voting. And Gray has called the 2020 election “clearly rigged.” (Warner has been more measured.)
But that only makes it more important that we know what they’re telling election conspiracy theorists in private. So to our readers in Missouri, Wyoming, and West Virginia: Why not try asking them yourselves? Let us know what you find out! |
After Years of Claiming Voter Fraud, Anti-Voting Activist Chuck Muth Praises Voter List Maintenance Procedures |
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Longtime readers of Eye On The Right may remember the name Chuck Muth, a Nevada-based anti-voting activist with a penchant for filing frivolous lawsuits alleging unlawful voter roll maintenance processes. He’s also a big fan of my work at Democracy Docket, it turns out. But I digress: Muth’s whole thing is screaming about “dirty” voter rolls in Nevada (and the rest of the country).
So it comes as somewhat of a shock to see Muth acknowledge that the nation’s voter list maintenance procedures actually work as they’re intended to. Writing in his personal news outlet, the Nevada News and Views, Muth published an AI-assisted analysis of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission’s 2024 Election And Voting Survey, which reported more than 21 million voter registration records removed from states’ voter rolls between the 2022 and 2024 elections. Muth’s analysis noted that these removals were largely for "routine" reasons, as required by the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) — like because people moved, died or didn’t vote in two straight elections.
“That’s how list maintenance is supposed to work,” he wrote.
He is right, that is how list maintenance is supposed to work. And that is how it does work.
Despite his assertions last year that Nevada wasn’t following proper NVRA protocol in its list maintenance procedures, Muth is now acknowledging that the system is working as it should. To boot: prominent anti-voting activist (and newsletter favorite) Cleta Mitchell even shared Muth’s analysis.
“America’s election system isn’t perfect,” Muth writes at the end of his analysis. “But based on the EAVS 2024 report, it’s not the complete disaster many claim, either.”
His tone is a far cry from, say, the aftermath of the 2020 election, when he wrote no less than six articles about voter fraud that caused Trump to lose the election, despite overwhelming evidence that there was none. The difference this time around? His guy won. |
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