After the 2020 election, fake presidential electors tried to reverse Arizona’s presidential election

Former U.S. Attorney for Arizona Paul Charlton discussed renewed scrutiny on sets of fake electors who signed off on Donald Trump winning the 2020 election. The issue has come up again in the investigation being conducted by the January 6th Committee in Congress.

How electors for the electoral college are chosen is somewhat confusing. Each party chooses electors who would vote for their candidate; the democrats choose electors, and the republicans choose their own set of electors. However, none of these electors are officially part of the electoral college until their party’s candidate wins a state. When Arizona declared Biden the winner in Arizona, the electors chosen by Arizona’s Democratic Party became the official Arizona electoral college representatives, and the electors chosen by Arizona’s Republican Party were dismissed, having no duties or powers pertaining to the electoral college.

However, two separate groups claiming to be the official electors–including members from Arizona’s Republican Party–filed official documents to an official entity–the National Archive–contending that they were Arizona’s electors, and that all 11 electoral votes go to Trump instead of Biden, despite even the governor having certified the election results.

“The president was elected,” Charlton said, “So says the governor of this state who signed off on the certificate, so said the attorney general who reviewed this, said the national archive who looked to make sure the documents they received were the official documents from the secretary of state.”

Charlton said if a prosecutor were to investigate they may be able to charge these fake electors with fraud for submitting official documents to the national archive. He also said fraud on this level–across multiple states–is unprecedented. Electors have voted for candidate they were not sent to vote for before, however, “One with this breath, this depth, this number has never occurred in this nation before.”