It’s Gonna Be Mayes
Plus: Immunity arguments at the Supreme Court. 🗳️
Published April 26, 2024
There were 84 so-called fake electors in 2020. In seven states, they signed their names to official-looking Electoral College certificates on behalf of Donald Trump and formally submitted them, even though Joe Biden had won each of those states.
After this week’s indictment in Arizona, fake electors have faced criminal charges in four states. Because laws differ from state to state, and each set of fake electors carried out their scheme separately, the circumstances are not identical in each case. As a result, state officials have reached different conclusions about whether (and which) criminal charges are warranted. Here’s a state-by-state breakdown.
Arizona
All 11 of Arizona’s fake electors were indicted Wednesday on felony charges including conspiracy and forgery. Their scheme “would have deprived Arizona’s voters of their right to have their votes counted for their chosen president,” Attorney General Kris Mayes said.
Georgia
Three of Georgia’s 16 fake electors were indicted last year as part of the sweeping election interference indictment issued by a grand jury in Fulton County. They face felony charges including racketeering, forgery, and filing false documents.
Michigan
All 16 of Michigan’s fake electors were charged last year with felonies including conspiracy and forgery. One of the 16, James Renner, had his charges dropped in October 2023 in exchange for cooperating with the prosecution.
Nevada
All six of Nevada’s fake electors were indicted last year by a Clark County grand jury. Each is charged with two felonies related to filing false documents. Their trial is scheduled for January 2025.
New Mexico
New Mexico was one of two states where the fake electors added conditional language to their certificates, writing that “it might later be determined” that they were valid electors. Attorney General Raúl Torrez concluded that the five people who signed the certificate couldn’t be prosecuted under existing state law. He called for authority to prosecute similar conduct in the future.
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania’s 20 would-be electors also included conditional language. In 2022, then–Attorney General Josh Shapiro determined that the fake certificate did not meet the legal standard for forgery as a result of that conditional clause, though he said it was “intentionally misleading and purposefully damaging to our democracy.”
Wisconsin
Wisconsin’s 10 fake electors have not been criminally charged at this time. They settled a civil lawsuit over their conduct in December 2023. As part of that settlement, they acknowledged taking part in an effort to overturn election results, and they acknowledged Biden was the rightful winner.
Others charged
The Arizona and Georgia indictments went beyond their states’ fake electors, also taking the national strategy into consideration. Trump’s former lawyer John Eastman was charged in both states. Kenneth Chesebro, one of the architects of the fake electors strategy, pleaded guilty to a felony in Georgia, and news outlets suggested he was implicated in the Arizona case as an un-indicted co-conspirator.
Celebrating Arab American Heritage Month
As Arab American Heritage Month comes to a close, we celebrate Arab Americans’ leadership and impact on our country. At all levels of government, people like Donna Shalala, the first Lebanese American cabinet member, and Abdullah Hammoud, the first Arab American mayor of Dearborn, Michigan, have broken barriers in American democracy.
Organizations like the Arab American Institute and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee have strengthened our democracy by working to uphold and advance the rights and cultural heritage of Arab Americans.
Like other minority groups, language can be an obstacle for Arab Americans trying to participate in our elections. But in 2022, Michigan took a big step toward making it possible for everyone to participate when Dearborn and Hamtramck made Arabic ballots available for the first time in the state’s history.
We are all better off in a democracy that truly represents its people, and we thank those who continue to inspire and work toward a more inclusive democratic process.
This Week in Democracy
- Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes announced charges against 18 people involved in efforts to overturn the state’s 2020 election results. The 11 people who falsely posed as presidential electors for Trump were charged with felony counts of fraud, forgery, and conspiracy. The other seven defendants include John Eastman, Jenna Ellis, and other prominent allies of former President Trump, some of whom are not yet named.
- The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments about Trump’s claim that he cannot be prosecuted for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. The court may decide that the federal election interference case against Trump can proceed, but its decision could still delay a trial until after the November election. The case is paused until the court issues a ruling.
➡️ READ: Trump’s federal charges, explained
- Trump’s criminal trial in New York began on Monday. The jury heard opening statements as well as testimony from the first witness about how Trump allegedly hid damaging information from voters before the 2016 election.
- States United Action’s ElectionDeniers.org won the Webby Award for Best News & Politics Website! The site is also a finalist for a Shorty Award, recognizing excellence in digital and social media. You can vote for the site through April 30 by selecting “Replacing the Refs.”
➡️ VOTE: The Shorty Awards
State of the States
Arizona Election Deniers Kari Lake and Mark Finchem were handed another loss when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take their case seeking to ban the state’s use of electronic voting machines. The case was previously dismissed by two other courts. In one previous dismissal, a judge called Lake and Finchem’s claims “frivolous” and imposed six-figure sanctions to discourage “similarly baseless suits in the future.
Also in Arizona, Attorney General Kris Mayes asked a judge to reject Mohave County Supervisor Ron Gould’s request for immunity from prosecution. Gould is seeking immunity so that he may continue voting for a measure to require that ballots be counted by hand in the 2024 election, despite Mayes’ warning that it violated state law. In 2023, after Mayes warned Mohave County that she would consider legal action if it moved forward with hand counts, the county voted against it.
Recommended Reading
In a column for The New York Times, former vice chair of the U.S. House’s January 6th Select Committee Liz Cheney argues that the U.S. Supreme Court should reject Trump’s claims of immunity from prosecution, and that they should do so quickly. “It cannot be that a president of the United States can attempt to steal an election and seize power but our justice system is incapable of bringing him to trial before the next election four years later,” she writes.
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