Documents Tie Pro-Trump Nonprofit to 2024 Push to Question Election Certification

Today’s Focus

A nonprofit run by close allies of President Donald Trump helped bankroll a 2024 swing-state ad campaign that suggested local officials had discretion to refuse certifying election results, according to documents reviewed by The Guardian and published Wednesday.

The group, the Foundation for Accountability, Integrity and Research in Elections Fund (Fair Elections Fund), was incorporated in Delaware in 2023. Its directors include Cleta Mitchell, the attorney who advised Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 result, and Heather Honey, a researcher who now holds an elections-related role at the Department of Homeland Security.

The ads in question appeared in battleground states in the months before the November 2024 vote. ProPublica and Wisconsin Watch reported at the time that the spots implied county canvassers and similar officials could withhold certification if they suspected irregularities.

State election law in every U.S. jurisdiction treats certification as a ministerial duty once any official challenges are resolved, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. Officials who refuse face mandamus orders from state courts, as occurred in Georgia, Arizona and Nevada during the 2024 cycle.

The Guardian also reported that the Fair Elections Fund paid social-media influencers in 2024 to oppose the Freedom to Vote Act and related federal voting legislation. Honey, before joining DHS last year, produced reports on mail ballots and voter rolls that Trump has cited to question the 2020 outcome; The Guardian and earlier fact-checks from PolitiFact described several of her central claims as inaccurate.

Neither Mitchell nor Honey responded to The Guardian’s requests for comment. The DHS press office did not address questions about Honey’s role.

The Debate

Supporters argue

Mitchell and allied groups have long argued that scrutiny of election procedures is legitimate civic activism, not subversion. In past statements to the Conservative Partnership Institute, where she runs the Election Integrity Network, Mitchell said volunteers are “asking questions the establishment doesn’t want asked” about voter rolls and mail-ballot chain of custody.

Honey’s defenders, including Pennsylvania state Sen. Cris Dush (R), have credited her research with prompting audits of voter rolls in several states. Dush said in 2023 that her work “raised legitimate questions” about list maintenance under the National Voter Registration Act.

The Heritage Foundation, which has employed Honey as a consultant, argues that pressure on certification officials to follow the law cuts both ways: officials, the foundation says, should refuse to rubber-stamp results when statutory canvassing requirements have not been met. Hans von Spakovsky of Heritage has written that local boards retain a narrow duty to flag discrepancies before certifying.

Trump campaign veterans note the ads did not instruct officials to refuse certification, only to understand their role, and that voters benefit from public debate over election administration.

Critics argue

Voting-rights groups said the documents confirm what they have argued for two years: that a coordinated network sought to manufacture grounds to contest a Trump loss in 2024. Marc Elias, founder of Democracy Docket, said the Fair Elections Fund “is the financial plumbing of the election denial movement.”

The Brennan Center’s Lawrence Norden told The Guardian-affiliated coverage that pressuring canvassers to treat certification as discretionary “invites a constitutional crisis,” because state law uniformly treats the step as mandatory. Several county officials in Georgia and Nevada faced criminal referrals in 2024 after refusing to certify.

Democratic members of the House Administration Committee, including ranking member Joseph Morelle (D-NY), have called for an investigation into Honey’s DHS appointment. Morelle said placing “someone who promoted false claims about 2020” inside the agency that coordinates election security with states is “a direct threat” to the Election Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center.

Common Cause and the League of Women Voters said paying influencers to oppose voting legislation without clear disclosure may run afoul of Federal Trade Commission endorsement guidelines.

What the experts say

Election-law scholars say the certification question has been settled repeatedly in court. Edward Foley of Ohio State’s Moritz College of Law has written that every state court to consider the issue since 2020, including in Cochise County, Arizona, has ruled that canvassing boards cannot refuse to certify on the basis of generalized suspicion.

A 2024 report from the Bipartisan Policy Center documented at least 35 instances since 2020 in which local officials delayed or refused certification; in every resolved case, courts ordered them to certify, and several officials faced misdemeanor charges.

Research by the MIT Election Data and Science Lab, led by Charles Stewart III, found public confidence in election administration is shaped less by procedures than by elite messaging. Stewart’s 2023 survey found Republican voters’ confidence in vote counts dropped 40 percentage points between 2016 and 2020, tracking Trump’s own statements.

The nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center notes that 501(c)(4) nonprofits like the Fair Elections Fund can legally fund issue ads but must avoid coordinating with candidates and must accurately describe the law they reference.

By the Numbers

2023: year the Fair Elections Fund was incorporated in Delaware, according to filings reviewed by The Guardian.

35: documented instances since 2020 in which local U.S. officials delayed or refused election certification, per the Bipartisan Policy Center.

0: number of those cases in which courts upheld a refusal to certify, according to the same report.

40 points: drop in Republican voter confidence in presidential vote counts between 2016 and 2020, per MIT Election Data and Science Lab surveys.

2024: year Honey was appointed to an elections-related role at the Department of Homeland Security, according to The Guardian.

$0: amount the Fair Elections Fund’s directors have publicly disclosed in response to media inquiries about influencer payments tied to 2024 voting legislation, per The Guardian’s reporting.