She Pushed to Overturn Trump's Loss in the 2020 Election. Now She'll Help Oversee U.S. Election Security.

[muriel_volestrangler]

Heather Honey has been appointed to a senior position in the Department of Homeland Security. State election officials and voting experts are concerned.

Heather Honey, a high-profile denier of Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 election, has been appointed to a senior position in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in which she’ll help oversee the nation’s election infrastructure.

Honey is a protege of Cleta Mitchell, a lawyer who tried to help Trump overturn the 2020 election results. In 2024, ProPublica reported that Honey had played a key role in Mitchell’s behind-the-scenes effort to change Georgia’s election rules to allow Republican officials to contest a potential Trump loss in that year’s presidential race. Honey also promoted election conspiracy theories, including one Trump cited in a speech to his followers before they stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
...
Experts on voting and state election officials warned that Honey’s appointment as DHS’ deputy assistant secretary of election integrity could erode trust between state and federal officials, prompting states not to share information with the agency.

“We are witnessing a dangerous trend: the elevation of known bad-faith actors like Heather Honey,” said Adrian Fontes, Arizona’s Democratic secretary of state, in a statement, citing Honey’s “well-documented history of spreading election lies that have been debunked in court.”

https://www.propublica.org/article/heather-honey-dhs-election-security

("Heather Honey"? What were her parents thinking?)

[Fiendish Thingy]

1. Yeah, but...

States run their elections, so other than make a lot of noise, and maybe cut off federal funding to blue states for election security, I’m not sure what she’s going to do.

[Torchlight]

2. They really are purposefully eroding trust in the nation's ability to elect and govern itself

Mission Being Accomplished. Putin and his trolls in St. Petersburg are very, very happy today.

[Nictuku]

3. Heather Honey..... sounds like one of those 'Hooker Names'

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. It is a product:

https://www.afonmel.com/item/51-heather-honey/
https://www.glenheatherhoney.co.uk/
https://gwenyngruffydd.co.uk/products/welsh-heather-honey-227g
https://www.chainbridgehoney.com/product/heather-honey-340g/

etc.

[Nictuku]

5. So they are going to put a jar of honey in charge of elections?

Just kidding. I couldn't resist.

I have had Heather Honey before, it is very good and tasty.

[Rebl2]

7. It certainly does

[Norbert]

6. With all due respect to singer Tommy Roe

[LetMyPeopleVote]

8. MaddowBlog-Researcher who distorted voter data gets election integrity job in Trump's second term

Heather Honey embraced 2020 election conspiracy theories. She’ll now serve in election integrity role at the Department of Homeland Security.

Researcher who distorted voter data gets election integrity job in Trump’s second term www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

— @jimrissmiller.bsky.social 2025-08-27T18:34:12.070Z

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/heather-honey-election-integrity-homeland-security-trump-rcna227521

For those who followed Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat, Cleta Mitchell’s name probably rings a bell. Few Republican lawyers went further than Mitchell in targeting the will of American voters.

As The New York Times summarized a few years ago, Mitchell was a leading figure in a cadre of conspiracy theorists who “frantically compiled unsubstantiated accusations, debunked claims and an array of confusing and inconclusive eyewitness reports to build the case that the election was marred by fraud. Courts rejected the cases and election officials were unconvinced, thwarting a stunning assault on the transfer of power.”

Years later, a Mitchell protégé has been tapped for an election integrity role in Trump’s second term. The Associated Press reported:

A conservative election researcher whose faulty findings on voter data were cited by President Donald Trump as he tried to overturn his 2020 election loss has been appointed to an election integrity role at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Pennsylvania activist Heather Honey is now serving as the deputy assistant secretary for election integrity in the department’s Office of Strategy, Policy and Plans, an organizational chart on its website shows.

Honey, who’ll be serving in a role that did not previously exist, “shows how self-styled election investigators who have thrown themselves into election conspiracy theories since 2020 are now being celebrated by a presidential administration that indulges their false claims,” the AP’s report added......

ProPublica added, “Experts on voting and state election officials warned that Honey’s appointment as DHS’ deputy assistant secretary of election integrity could erode trust between state and federal officials, prompting states not to share information with the agency.”....
Indeed, why cancel elections when the White House can instead target mail-in ballots and voting machines, attack the census, brazenly redraw district maps and impose the president’s version of “honesty” on the elections process, all while hiring conspiracy theorists to influential election-related positions in the federal government?

I am not a fan of Cleta Mitchell. I was happy to see her forced out of a decent law firm. Honey is a lousy choice for any role in election administration