Voting rights

A Republican lawyer who advised former United States President Donald Trump on his campaign to overturn the 2020 election results is now playing a central role in the party’s effort to restrict voting. Cleta Mitchell was among the Trump advisers on a January phone call in which Trump asked Georgia election officials to “find” enough votes to declare him, and not Democrat Joe Biden, the winner of the battleground state. Now Mitchell has taken the helm of attempts to tighten state voting laws and fight Democratic efforts to expand voter access. In regular contact with Trump, she is also advising state lawmakers crafting the voting restriction proposals. Trump’s false claims of fraud have fuelled a wave of voting restrictions. More than 250 voting restrictions have been proposed by Republican lawmakers.