Fact check: Some Republican groups voted to reject certified 2020 election results

BrieAnna J. Frank, USA TODAY
·4 min read
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The claim: Langlade, Maricopa counties and Texas unanimously rejected results of 2020 election

The certified results of the 2020 presidential election remain a GOP talking point even as the 2022 midterms approach, with some social media users claiming entire counties and a state have rejected the outcome of the race from nearly two years ago.

“Breaking: Langlade County Wisconsin Joins Texas and Maricopa County Arizona to Unanimously Reject the Results of 2020 Election,” read a July 2 Facebook post that accumulated more than 1,000 interactions in two weeks.

But the claim misrepresents what actually happened. Only GOP factions in those places rejected President Joe Biden's win and say former President Donald Trump is the nation's rightful leader. Their decision has no bearing on the certified election results in those areas.

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USA TODAY reached out to the user who shared the claim for comment.

Counties in Arizona, Wisconsin follow suit after Texas GOP rejects results

The Republican Party of Texas approved a resolution in June that rejected the results of the 2020 election and said Biden was “not legitimately elected," The Dallas Morning News reported.

"We strongly urge all Republicans to work to ensure election integrity and to show up to vote in November of 2022, bring your friends and family, volunteer for your local Republicans, and overwhelm any possible fraud," the resolution said.

Trump won the state’s 38 electoral votes after nabbing 52.1% of the vote in 2020, as reported by The Texas Tribune.

That was followed by a similar resolution by the Maricopa County Republican Party’s executive committee on June 21. The resolution’s author, Brian Ference, told the Arizona Republic the widely-debunked 2000 Mules documentary “irrefutably proves huge outcome changing levels of fraud in the 2020 election.”

Ference said the committee hoped Arizona’s 14 other GOP county parties would endorse the resolution, according to the Republic.

Biden won by a narrow margin in Maricopa County, receiving 50.3% of votes compared to Trump’s 48.1%, as reported by Politico. The county's board of supervisors voted unanimously to certify and finalize the election results in November 2020, and later recounts and audits confirmed the result.

And in Wisconsin, the Republican Party of tiny Langlade County, where Trump received more than 65% of the votes, announced in July that its executive committee had passed a resolution formally rejecting the certified results of the 2020 election and stating that Biden was “not legitimately elected” as president. Langlade County has a population of less than 20,000.

Fact check: No evidence of 8 million 'excess' Biden votes from 2020 election

“We encourage every other Republican County Party in both the State of Wisconsin and all other States that experienced voter fraud and cheating to issue a similar resolution,” the announcement said.

Wisconsin's presidential election results were certified on Nov. 30, 2020, according to the Wisconsin Elections Commission.

Our rating: False

Based on our research, we rate FALSE the claim that Langlade and Maricopa counties as well as the state of Texas unanimously rejected the results of 2020 election. GOP groups in those places passed resolutions to reject the election results, but there was no unanimous action of any kind. And regardless, these proposals have no impact on the certified election results in those areas, which various recounts and audits all confirmed were legitimately won by Biden.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: Some Republican parties rejected 2020 election results