More than a dozen Republican officials accused of signing false certifications claiming Donald Trump won their states’ electoral votes in the 2020 election are expected to serve as electors Tuesday, this time casting real votes for the president-elect .
Thirteen suspected “fake electors” will vote in the electoral colleges of Pennsylvania, Nevada and Michigan, even though some officials still face criminal charges following the last election.
In a process rooted in the Constitution as well as local laws, presidential electors across the country are meeting Tuesday to cast votes in the Electoral College, finalizing Trump’s victory. Trump is expected to get 312 electoral votes, while Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to get 226.
In this Jan. 27, 2024, file photo, Nevada GOP Chairman Michael McDonald, right, shakes hands with former Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump during a campaign event in Las Vegas .
John Locher/AP, FILE
When the same process unfolded four years ago, with 306 electoral votes awarded to President Joe Biden, Trump and his allies allegedly organized fake slates of electors in seven states as part of a plan to overturn the election, according to a federal indictment charging Trump. for his conduct. The president-elect denied any wrongdoing and the case was dismissed.
Mimicking the procedures followed by legitimate voters, the fake voters met on the same day as the real voters, but allegedly signed fake certifications declaring Trump the winner. Some voters allegedly knowingly signed the fake certificates to influence the results, while others were misled by Trump and his allies, who said the certificates would only be used if Trump’s lawsuit over widespread voter fraud was successful. .
In this Dec. 18, 2023, file photo, Republican voters James Hindle III, top left, Shawn Meehan, James DeGraffenreld, bottom left, Jessie Law, Nevada Republican Party Chairman Michael McDonald, right , and Eileen Rice, not photographed, appear at a distance. for their initial arraignment at the Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas.
Las Vegas Review-Journal/TNS via Getty Images, FILE
To determine the overlap, ABC News examined the fake 2020 voter certificates with the current voter rolls from state parties or state election offices.
In Nevada, two bogus voters, both charged with falsely declaring Trump the winner of Nevada’s 2020 electoral votes, participated as electors on Tuesday.
Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford refiled his charges against six fake Republican electors last week after a judge threw out the original case over a venue issue.
In Michigan, six of the so-called fake 2020 voters returned to vote Tuesday. They have all pleaded not guilty to the charges against them.
The returning voters all face criminal charges in the 2020 draft and await a judge’s decision on whether the case will go to trial. They all pleaded not guilty.
In Pennsylvania, five of the certified 2024 presidential electors are also people who signed the fake voter certificate in 2020. No criminal charges have been filed against the fake Pennsylvania electors.
In this file photo, a person holds the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania voting certificate during a joint session of Congress after the session resumed following protests at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC, early on January 7, 2021.
Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images, FILE
Rex VanMiddlesworth, a constitutional legal expert and board member of the nonpartisan civic education and elections group Keep Our Republic, told ABC News that the turnout of so-called fake voters could reflect the current state of the Republican Party.
“I think this shows how deeply ingrained the Republican Party’s belief that the election was stolen in 2020 is in the Republican Party – and so this is not a disqualification for the party. Rather, it is a badge of honor for the party for standing up and fighting the results of the 2020 election,” he said.
After Biden was declared the winner in 2020, Trump filed lawsuits in several battleground states trying to overturn the election results, arguing that the election was “stolen.” However, although his lawsuits led to the 2020 election results being challenged in court, his claims were found to be unfounded.
VanMiddlesworth, who co-chairs the organization’s anti-subversion task force, said there are relatively limited requirements for being a voter and there are likely no legal issues against voters who participate again, even those who face charges. He also noted that the Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act, passed in 2022, made the Electoral College process much clearer and partly contributed to a smoother certification process this year .
“The voters’ job is to vote for who their state voted for,” VanMiddlesworth said. “In truth, their identity should not affect this and should not matter.”
He added that “there’s nothing really untoward this year about what they’re doing” because they are willing to vote correctly for those their states voted for.
Prosecutors in Georgia, Nevada, Arizona and Wisconsin have filed criminal charges against some of the bogus voters, although many cases have been plagued by problems.
The Georgia criminal case against Trump and several defendants, including three bogus voters, has been stalled since June while an appeals court considers the former president’s challenge to Judge Scott McAfee’s decision not to disqualify Fulton County Prosecutor Fani Willis about her relationship with a prosecutor. . The judge overseeing Arizona’s fake voter case has recused himself after asking his fellow judges to respond to attacks on Vice President Kamala Harris. Nevada’s fake voter case was dismissed earlier this year due to a venue issue, although the state’s attorney general refiled the case in another county.
