
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) listens as Vice President Mike Pence speaks during a joint session of Congress to count the Electoral College votes of the 2020 presidential election in the House Chamber on January 6, 2021. (Photo by Erin Scott – Pool/Getty Images)
The 84 people who signed bogus documents claiming that Donald Trump won the 2020 election include dozens of local Republican Party leaders, four current candidates for public office, six current office holders and at least five previous state and federal office holders.
Groups from Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin all allegedly met in December 2020 and sent lists of so-called alternate electors to the National Archives after the 2020 election. The scheme is reportedly under investigation by the FBI and the Department of Justice, which have issued subpoenas to several of the people involved.
The plot is also a focus of the U.S. House select committee hearings on the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol and GOP attempts to overturn the results of the election.
During a recent committee hearing, Rep. Adam Schiff explained how Trump and his campaign were directly involved in the scheme to replace Joe Biden’s legitimate electors. They convinced people to sign onto documents that would be used if Trump were successful in litigation, but then continued the scheme anyway, even as the campaign continuously lost in court and top advisers and lawyers backed away from involvement.
Schiff also displayed text messages revealing how Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin likely played a part in the scheme. The texts showed how Johnson’s chief of staff attempted to coordinate the handoff of the slate of fake electors to former Vice President Mike Pence. Johnson initially denied any involvement, but then admitted he was on an email chain regarding the scheme.
Despite renewed attention in Washington on the fake electors, the vast majority of people involved in the scheme have so far escaped scrutiny.
In January, States Newsroom published a full list of the fake electors. Since that time, as the investigation has intensified, the people involved have appeared on the ballot in primaries, been subpoenaed, and have left their positions or started new ones.
The slate of fake electors now includes at least three current candidates for office, including Burt Jones, who won the Republican primary for lieutenant governor in Georgia and will appear on the ballot in November, and Jim Lamon, a candidate for U.S. Senate from Arizona.
The slate also includes four people who have lost elections since signing their names as fake electors. Lou Barletta and Charlie Gerow both ran in the Republican primary for Pennsylvania governor but lost the election in May. Kelly Ruh was an alderperson for De Pere, Wisconsin, until recently but lost reelection in April. Robert Spindell Jr., a member of the Wisconsin Election Commission, lost his internal commission election to chair the group.
The group also includes seven current officeholders:
- Jake Hoffman, an Arizona state representative.
- Burt Jones, a Georgia state senator.
- Stanley Grot, the Shelby Township clerk in Michigan.
- Amy Facchinello, a member of the school board in Grand Blanc, Michigan.
- Robert Spindell Jr., a member of the Wisconsin Election Commission.
- Josephine Ferro, the Monroe County Register of Wills in Pennsylvania.
- Sam DeMarco III, an Allegheny County at-large council member in Pennsylvania.
In addition to the chair, former chair or co-chair of the state Republican Party in all seven states, the group includes people for whom political controversy and investigations are nothing new:
- Michael Ward of Arizona has been accused of spitting in the eye of a former campaign volunteer for his wife, Kelli Ward.
- Tom Carroll of Pennsylvania was accused by a Black colleague of leaving a stuffed monkey on her desk in a racist act, while he was serving as an assistant district attorney.
- Gloria Kay Godwin of Georgia has been accused of stalking after allegedly attempting to interfere in a citizen effort to obtain signatures for a recall election petition.
In January, the Congressional Select Committee on January 6th announced it had subpoenaed 14 of the counterfeit electors who it believes have information about how they met and who was behind the scheme, according to committee Chairman Bennie G. Thompson, D-Miss. Each of the 14 served as “chair” or “secretary” on the state slates of fake electors.
In March 2021, liberal watchdog group American Oversight made public the fake elector documents, which it received in response to a public records request.
Attorneys general from the states involved in the scheme have investigated whether to bring charges against the Trump backers who participated, but no charges have been filed to date.
Here is a comprehensive list of all the bogus electors from the seven states, including the people who were slated to sign the documents but were replaced with alternates: Read more