Cottage Industry of Conspiracy Theorists Peddles Mistrust of Elections

The 2020 elections spawned the unsubstantiated “Big Lie” conspiracy theory that former President Donald Trump lost because of massive voter fraud. A veritable cottage industry of election deniers has since taken up the cause, traveling the country and preaching various election conspiracy theories as fact to local communities. Now, various groups have taken the Big Lie and used it to question, if not harass, election officials at the local and state levels. As the calendar turned to the 2024 election season, this industry and its followers pivoted to the narrative that the upcoming election was also in danger of being stolen.

By attacking the integrity of elections, election deniers have planted seeds of distrust from the national level to local communities. They have called into question the reliability of voting machines and tried to convince election and other public officials not to certify results, even though there is no verifiable proof that any of their claims are valid. This conspiracy-theory echo chamber has made people across the country doubt the outcome of elections. Fundamental to democracy is the belief that when a vote is cast, it is counted. Election deniers use their conspiracy theories to undermine Americans’ faith in that process.

Some of the leading figures in the election denier cottage industry are profiled below. Often when aggressive election denial is found in communities, these figures have spoken in the area. While this is not a comprehensive list, those included provide a broad picture of the conspiracists circulating misinformation about elections.

Joe Oltmann and FEC United

Faith Education Commerce, also known as FEC United, is a far-right group with a militia component that has chapters in Colorado and Michigan. FEC United, through its propaganda about Dominion Voting Systems and its work with other election deniers, has been a key source of conspiracy theories that have made their way into many communities.

The group began sharing electoral conspiracy theories at a “Stop the Steal” event in Colorado in November 2020. Its leader, Joe Oltmann, announced: “We are standing in opposition to the cheating and outright corruption by the Democratic party in their attempt to steal the election and the U.S. presidency! We patriots and citizens are declaring that we will not be deceived, will not stop shouting and will continue to fight back until truth prevails.”

The same month, Oltmann reported publicly that he had uncovered a conspiracy involving the voting machine company Dominion Voting Systems. His accusation came from allegedly attending what court documents refer to as an “antifa conference call,” during which Oltmann claimed a Dominion Voting Systems employee bragged: “Don’t worry about the election. Trump is not going to win. I made effing sure of that.” Oltmann doubled down on his accusations against the employee, Eric Coomer, in an affidavit for Trump attorney Sidney Powell and shared it with various media outlets.

Similar conspiracy theories about Dominion Voting Systems were shared on right-wing news networks, including Fox News, which Dominion sued for defamation. Fox News ended up settling the case for $787.5 million in 2023. Oltmann and others that shared his story are currently defendants in a defamation lawsuit by Coomer. One of the defendants in the case, Newsmax, settled and gave Coomer a public apology in 2021.

In September, Oltmann was found in contempt of court in the Coomer case because he would not say who told him about the alleged “antifa conference call,” which has yet to be corroborated. He was told to comply with the court or pay Coomer $1,000 a day until he did. Oltmann continued to resist the court order and incur daily fines, until the judge paused the fines in mid-October while some issues were sorted out by a federal appeals court. He started a crowdfunding effort to help pay the fines.

FEC United also publicly supported Tina Peters, the Mesa County, Colorado, elections clerk who was convicted in August of a series of crimes related to her plan to give an election denier unauthorized access to voting equipment. Peters was a guest on Oltmann’s online show many times and spoke at a February 2022 town hall hosted by Faith Education Commerce. The group also promoted an event by election denier Mike Lindell in April 2022 where Peters spoke. More recently, Oltmann and Peters shared the stage at the July “Restore Freedom Rally” in Denver, and he has shared his support for Peters after her conviction.

As the 2022 elections approached, FEC United joined other election deniers in spreading conspiracy theories involving absentee ballot drop boxes. In October 2022, to fight supposed election fraud, the group organized “ballot box watching” events in Colorado. FEC United suggested that people form groups of seven or more, congregate 50 or more feet from a drop box, point a vehicle’s headlights at the group and the ballot box, and get video of anything they saw. Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold warned in a statement that “attempting to interrupt or intimidate voters by aggressive questioning, challenging, photographing or videotaping at a drop box or voting center may be violating state laws against voter interference and intimidation, and potentially also federal voting rights law.”

FEC United and its leaders have networked with, hosted and promoted many other election deniers who are part of this propagandist industry, including:

• MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, who claims it is easy to hack voting machines and manipulate election outcomes.
• Kash Patel, an attorney in the Trump administration. Patel worked for Trump’s Truth Social after the 2020 election, and his name has been mentioned as a possible appointee to CIA director if Trump wins the White House.
• Seth Keshel, a former Army officer who has appeared at over 100 election denial events since 2021.
• David Clements has been a regular guest on Oltmann’s show, and Oltmann participated in Clements’ documentary Let My People Go. Both men have not only promoted election conspiracy theories, but also have supported Jan. 6, 2021, insurrectionists. They also advocate a belief that public officials can and should defy, and even resist, the government on any law or policy they consider ungodly.

Mike Lindell

Mike Lindell is a central pillar in MAGA election conspiracy theories. A businessman who found religion while recovering from drug addiction, Lindell founded the company MyPillow to sell a pillow design that he says he developed himself.

Lindell has devoted much of his fortune to championing Trump’s political career. After Trump lost the election, Lindell threw his resources behind the Big Lie conspiracy theory.

Lindell claims, against reliable evidence, that electronic voting machines are easily hackable, and that there was a conspiracy involving the government, NGOs and others to steal the election from Trump. Despite an abundance of evidence showing that election fraud is not widespread and that voting machines are secure, Lindell has argued to change election laws and replace machines with hand counts as necessary to safeguard democracy.

Lindell has put out three propaganda “documentaries” arguing that foreign nations cyberattacked the 2020 election. To support his work, he created the Lindell Offense Fund. The fund’s website features testimonials from such MAGA leaders and extremists as Michael Flynn, Charlie Kirk and Kari Lake.

Lindell is also running what appears to be a largely self-financed operation called “The Plan.” The goal is to gather proof of widespread voting fraud via voting machines in the 2024 presidential election and to ultimately replace electronic voting machines with hand-counting of ballots. The text of The Plan is replete with conspiracy theory and unfounded fears of the government – hallmarks of the antigovernment movement. It asks, “The Plan is designed to … tee up the next important question, ‘What else are they lying about?’”

The Plan has four organizational components. The first is Frank Social, Lindell’s social media platform. Lindell’s Plan encourages people to take pictures at polling sites and upload them for others to see. The second, Cause of America, claims to train 300,000 volunteers not only to gather information but to push for changing election laws, getting rid of voting machines and teaching hand-counting. Third is a media platform called Frank, and the fourth is an “Election Crime Bureau” to act on the information coming in from other organizations.

Central to this effort is a wireless monitoring device, which Lindell shortens in The Plan to “WMD.” Lindell claims they can detect whether a voting machine is connected to the internet, and said he hopes to install them in “all 50 states.” Election officials have criticized the devices’ efficacy, purpose and legality, and some jurisdictions have banned them outright. Lindell, who has significant capital tied up in this effort and is subject to civil litigation related to his election lies, has asked individual supporters to help pay for the devices, at $500 a piece.

A Sept. 30 report from the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights has shown that thousands of people belong to local organizations tied to Lindell’s scheme via his Cause of America program. His “Election Crime Bureau” has sent surveys to county-level elections officials looking for such details as personal contact information. Legitimate organizations working on real election security suggested counties do not respond and accused Lindell’s group of “impersonating” cybersecurity specialists. Lindell’s Cause for America is also holding public hand-counting seminars around the country.

To date, Lindell’s efforts have led to more disasters than victories. He has been sued by Dominion Voting Systems and forced to pay $5 million on a public bet he lost when someone disproved his election data. One of Lindell’s major allies, former Colorado elections clerk Tina Peters, faced several charges connected with “using someone else’s security badge to give an expert affiliated with MyPillow chief executive Mike Lindell access to the Mesa County election system and deceiving other officials about that person’s identity.” She was sentenced to nine years in prison in early October. Lindell has been evicted from his MyPillow warehouse and has legal fees his lawyers say he cannot pay.

Yet his election lies persist. On Oct. 23, The New York Times reported that disinformation about the security of voting machines, Lindell’s principal cause, has resurfaced in the weeks before the election, both on social media and in the courts.

Douglas Frank: The ‘Johnny Appleseed’ of election deniers

As claims of a stolen 2020 presidential election emerged and were quickly debunked, Ohio high school teacher Douglas Frank saw his moment to step into the world of conspiracy theory propaganda. Leaving his post at the school he helped establish, Frank began crisscrossing the country presenting his false claims of a rigged election.

Backed by Lindell’s multimillion dollar election denial campaign, Frank speaks to crowds by the hundreds, claiming to have exposed an algorithm proving a rigged election. He has compared himself to Johnny Appleseed, traveling to spread the truth about election fraud.

Frank asserts that election results are determined on the state level by a cabal of actors who stuff ballots. According to him, he can accurately predict voter turnout in every county in the United States with a formula that involves registered voters grouped by age. If there are any discrepancies between his projection and actual voter turnout, Frank blames corruption.

Frank has compared his efforts to the work of Jesus. At his training sessions, he encourages fellow election deniers to protest at and overload public meetings, to pressure elected officials to either resign or stop using election machines. At one talk in Nebraska, he urged picketing elected officials at their homes and at their children’s schools. The campaign of intimidation doesn’t end there. “If your militia isn’t tuned up,” he told Nebraska attendees, “get it tuned up.” At a presentation in Great Falls, Montana, Frank told attendees to “rise up.” He showed one slide that read, “What to do when antifa comes to your town,” and the next slide showed a semi-automatic weapon. Frank urged attendees not to call law enforcement, but rather grab their guns when confronted by peaceful protesters.

David Clements

David Clements is a former attorney and New Mexico State University assistant professor who came to prominence as an election denier and vocal supporter of the Jan. 6 insurrection. A self-described expert on the legality of voting machines, Clements has made election-interference claims that can be traced back to at least 2014 when, while running in a U.S. Senate GOP primary race in Arizona, he claimed his opponent hacked his campaign email to influence the election. His opponent sued Clements for defamation and settled out of court. Clements would later use this incident as ammunition for his support of Trump’s election fraud lies, telling supporters, “I’ve seen this before.”

In January 2021, Clements appeared on Steve Bannon’s “WarRoom” podcast and Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show repeating his election conspiracy theories. In August of that year, he was invited to Mar-a-Lago to meet with Trump. In February 2022, Clements said he had “enough evidence to have indictments, people tried for treason and have the remedy of firing squads.” Clements’ national profile within election denier circles didn’t distract him from intimate involvement in disrupting elections at a local level. His main target? Voting machines.

In late 2021, Clements launched a campaign to challenge the results of the 2020 election in Otero County, New Mexico. Despite Otero County going handily to Trump in the election, Clements still argued voting machines were rigged on a state level, giving the race to Joe Biden. In Otero, Clements had an ally in a county commissioner, Couy Griffin. Griffin founded the group Cowboys for Trump and was part of the mob that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. In Otero County, commissioners are responsible for certifying election results. Reuters reported that Griffin and Clements were in close contact concerning the challenge via email, where Griffin asked for guidance from Clements on responding to public criticism.

The campaign to investigate the 2020 election did not find evidence of fraud, but in Otero County, the damage was done. Uncertainty was sowed within the Otero County community. Clements again claimed a fraudulent election, this time for the June 2022 primary. All three commissioners voted against certification. The two commissioners apart from Griffin finally agreed to certify after the New Mexico secretary of state threatened to sue.

This August, Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters was convicted for her role in sharing authorized information about Dominion Voting Systems. During the trial, Peters’ defense team attempted to call Clements as a witness in the trial but was blocked. The Colorado Sun reported that, while there was no official reason given for Clements not testifying, the judge had told the defense team multiple times that the case was not about election fraud.

Editor’s note: This is the second in a three-part series.
Part I: Election disinformation harms communities and democracy
Part III: How community leaders and officials in two states took on election deniers

Picture at top: Among notable election deniers are from left: David Clements, Joe Oltmann, Tina Peters, Mike Lindell and Douglas Frank. (Credit: SPLC)