Some of Trump's 2020 "fake" electors don't want a repeat
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Some state GOP officials and former "fake" electors from 2020 who are serving again in this year's election don't plan to fall in line with any push to overturn the results if Vice President Harris wins their state, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: It's the latest sign that if Republicans try to reverse an election loss by Donald Trump this year in a way similar to the alleged elector scheme of 2020, it will be tougher to carry out.
- The fallout from the 2020 debacle — which led to charges against dozens of GOP party operatives — has sapped some of the enthusiasm for a repeat.
What we're watching: Electors in swing states Michigan and Pennsylvania tell Axios they won't sign any Electoral College documents unless a Trump victory in their state is certain.
- And in Wisconsin, another closely contested swing state, state GOP officials said last month that their list of electors will be irrelevant if Harris wins the state.
What they're saying: "I can tell you that Hank will be much more careful this time around," Dave Kallman, the lawyer representing Michigan elector Hank Choate, told Axios. "If Harris wins, I don't think you're going to be seeing him showing up in Lansing to sign anything."
- "The only way that Hank's signing anything is if Trump wins," added Kallman, whose client has pleaded not guilty to several criminal charges, including forgery.
- Kallman says Choate and other GOP electors in Michigan essentially were duped by Trump attorneys who said they weren't going to use the Electoral College certificate they signed unless either the legislature acted on Trump's behalf or Trump won a court case challenging the state's results.
"Whoever wins, wins. That is the process. We did not do illegal things last time and we will not do illegal things this time," Ash Khare, who was designated as a GOP elector in Pennsylvania in 2020 and again this year.
- Khare signed a false electoral certificate in 2020 but wasn't charged because he and his fellow Pennsylvania GOP electors added a clause to their false electoral certificate saying that their votes should be counted only if a court found them to be valid electors.
Wisconsin's Republican Party, meanwhile, has indicated that it will not support another fake electors scheme if Trump loses.
- Asked by reporters whether Wisconsin's GOP would support a potential election challenge by Trump, state party spokesperson Matt Fisher said that campaigns have the right to bring up issues in court, but "what matters in any election is who has the most votes."
- "If Kamala Harris and Tim Walz have the most votes, they are thereby the winners of Wisconsin and these [Republican] electors...will not be assembling or meeting. They will have no purpose."
The big picture: The Electoral Count Reform Act, signed into law in 2022, provides another deterrent for any attempts to overturn election results.
- Among other changes, it raises the threshold for objecting to a state's electoral votes by requiring one-fifth of both the U.S. House and Senate to do so, instead of the one representative and one senator previously required.
Reality check: A significant number of electors on this year's roster, including local officials from Georgia, Nevada and Arizona, have been vocal proponents of Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election and haven't appeared to back away from those claims.
- Nevada GOP chair Michael McDonald, a loyal Trump ally, defended his role as a fake elector in 2020, and Washoe County (Nevada) GOP chairman Bruce Parks continues to make unfounded claims of mass voter fraud.
By the numbers: Trump's campaign says it has assembled a massive "election integrity" unit of 230,000 poll watchers and poll workers across the nation and hundreds of lawyers in each battleground state, ready to file lawsuits challenging voting procedures and election rules if Trump loses.
