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 don’t ask people if they work with groups,” Richards says.
NCEIT is affiliated with the National Election Integrity Network (EIN), whose members allege without evidence that the United States is plagued by election fraud. The EIN was created by Cleta Mitchell, a former lawyer for Donald Trump who was present at the 2020 phone call in which Trump asked Georgia’s secretary of state to “find” him nearly 12,000 votes.
When EagleAI Network was created in the wake of the 2020 election, supposedly received legal assistance and strategic advice from Mitchell, although Richards has insisted that Mitchell has “noofficial relationship”With EagleAI Network. The company has sought contracts with public electoral boards in at least three states (Georgia, Texas and West Virginia), and has data on voters who have recently moved from at least nine states (Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Texas), but the total number of states in which EagleAI Network has been used is unclear. Notably, North Carolina is absent from both publicly available lists.
NCEIT’s campaign targeting “suspicious voters” could disproportionately affect Hispanics. Jim Womack, founder and president of NCEIT and chairman of the Lee County Republican Party, said in a recent video obtained by CBS News that when generating suspect voter lists, NCEIT members should focus on people with “Hispanic-sounding” last names.
“If you have people who were registered and they’re missing information… and they were registered in the last 90 days before the election, and they have Hispanic-sounding last names, that’s probably, that’s a suspect voter,” Womack says in the video. “That doesn’t mean they’re illegal. It just means they are suspicious.”
The emails do not detail exactly how EagleAI Network’s “suspicious voter” tool works. However, the company’s tool to automate voter registration challenges, a similar process, is well documented. While voter registration challenges must be filed at least 90 days before an election, voter challenges can be filed up to five days after an election in North Carolina.
EagleAI Network tool for filing voter registration challenges It essentially centralizes the process. It allows users to search for people they suspect have problems or errors in their voter registrations, using data from a combination of public and private sources. A search could reveal voters who, for example, live at a particular address or share demographic data such as age.