A Lesson for Michigan? Cleta Calls Out California
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Why Having the Right Election Laws Is So Important
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By Cleta Mitchel, election attorney, senior legal fellow at the Conservative Partnership Institute, and founder of the Election Integrity Network.
June 23, 2026
California’s elections are quite the spectacle.
Over the past decade, California has adopted a litany of changes to its state election code justified by the big lie of voter access. It has eliminated guardrails that were established over the 20th century to protect voters (particularly the most vulnerable) from political operatives and well-funded campaigns to steal and manipulate ballots, voters, and votes. This had led to election results that are not trustworthy or reliably accurate.
Since 2020, my work as an election lawyer has been focused on election systems: how to ensure voter access with proper safeguards so that no voter, group of voters, or politically powerful incumbents or operatives can manipulate the election system or its outcomes.
The Election Integrity Network I founded in 2021 consists of hundreds of citizen volunteers across the country who have tirelessly engaged in the election processes in their states and communities and become experts in every facet of that process.
With their input and expertise, last month the Election Integrity Network published the Model Election Laws Handbook. An election system grounded in the laws outlined in the handbook will provide not only voter access but more importantly, control by the voters — not the political class — of election outcomes.
