In response to a request for comment, Richards tells WIRED that EagleAI Network “has no relationships with entities” and, rather, “is used by individuals.”
“We do not ask people whether they work with groups,” Richards says.
The NCEIT is affiliated with the nationwide Election Integrity Network (EIN), whose members allege without evidence that the US is plagued with voter fraud. The EIN was created by Cleta Mitchell, Donald Trump’s former lawyer who was present on the 2020 phone call in which Trump asked the Georgia secretary of state to “find” him nearly 12,000 votes.
When EagleAI Network was created in the wake of the 2020 election, it reportedly received legal assistance and strategy advice from Mitchell—though Richards has insisted that Mitchell has no “official relationship” with EagleAI Network. The company has courted contracts with public election boards in at least three states (Georgia, Texas, and West Virginia), and it has data about voters that have recently moved from at least nine states (Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Texas), but the total number of states EagleAI Network has been used in is unclear. Notably, North Carolina is absent from both publicly available lists.
The NCEIT’s campaign to target “suspicious voters” could disproportionately impact Hispanic people. Jim Womack, NCEIT founder and president and Lee County Republican Party chair, said in a recent video obtained by CBS News that when generating suspicious voter lists, NCEIT members should target people with “Hispanic-sounding” last names.
“If you’ve got folks that you, that were registered, and they’re missing information … and they were registered in the last 90 days before the election, and they’ve got Hispanic-sounding last names, that probably is, is a suspicious voter,” Womack says in the video. “It doesn’t mean they’re illegal. It just means they’re suspicious.”
The emails don’t detail exactly how the “suspicious voter” tool from EagleAI Network works. However, the company’s tool for automating voter registration challenges, a similar process, is well documented. While voter registration challenges have to be filed no fewer than 90 days before an election, voter challenges can be filed up to five days after an election in North Carolina.
EagleAI Network’s tool for filing voter registration challenges essentially centralizes the process. It allows users to search for people who they suspect have issues or mistakes in their voter registrations, using data from a combination of public and private sources. A search could surface voters who, say, live at a particular address, or share demographics like age.
