This work considers the Cauchy problem for a second order elliptic operator in a bounded domain. A new quasi-reversibility approach is introduced for approximating the solution of the ill-posed Cauchy problem in a regularized manner. The method is based on a well-posed mixed variational problem on H 1 × H div , with the corresponding solution pair converging monotonically to the solution of the Cauchy problem and the associated flux, if they exist. It is demonstrated that the regularized problem can be discretized using Lagrange and Raviart-Thomas finite elements. The functionality of the resulting numerical algorithm is tested via three-dimensional numerical experiments based on simulated data. Both the Cauchy problem and a related inverse obstacle problem for the Laplacian are considered.