It is time for Arizona's fake electors to face real charges
Last week, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes announced that a grand jury had indicted Cochise County Supervisors Peggy Judd and Tom Crosby on felony counts of conspiracy and interference with an election officer.
Mayes said, “I took an oath to uphold the rule of law, and my office will continue to enforce Arizona’s elections laws and support our election officials as they carry out the duties and responsibilities of their offices.”
It’s a good start. At least I hope so.
Because it has been quite a while, now, and it’s time for Arizona’s fake electors to face some real charges.
Fake electors in other states face charges
You remember them, don’t you?
Mayes’ office has been looking into the activities of former Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward and her band of bumbling operatives, who tried to overturn the will of Arizona voters by portraying themselves as legitimate electors in the 2020 election.
Similar fraudsters in Michigan were indicted on felony charges.
County supervisors: 'Shall' pay for ignoring election law
That state’s Attorney General Dana Nessel said, “They weren’t duly elected electors and each of the defendants knew it. They carried out these actions with the hope and belief that the electoral votes of Michigan’s 2020 election would be awarded to the candidate of their choosing, instead of the candidate Michigan voters actually chose.”Likewise, fake electors in Georgia were indicted, along with former President Donald Trump.
In addition, Kenneth Chesebro, who helped put together the Trump campaign’s fake elector plot, pleaded guilty to a felony in Georgia and has agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.
Arizona fake electors offer lots of evidence
And he agreed as well to meet with investigators in Arizona and Nevada, where similar investigations are underway.
Not that the Arizona plotters haven’t provided plenty of evidence of their behavior already.
Like when attorney Jack Wilenchik wrote to Trump adviser Boris Epshteyn, “We (Arizona Republicans) would just be sending in ‘fake’ electoral votes to Pence so that ‘someone’ in Congress can make an objection when they start counting votes, and start arguing that the ‘fake’ votes should be counted.”
Later, Wilenchik sent a follow-up email saying, “‘alternative’ votes is probably a better term than ‘fake’ votes,” followed by a smiley face emoji.
There is an Arizona law — ARS 13-2406 — that says, “A person commits impersonating a public servant if such person pretends to be a public servant and engages in any conduct with the intent to induce another to submit to his pretended official authority or to rely on his pretended official acts.”
That’s what Arizona’s fake electors did. For which they should face real consequences.
Reach Montini at ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona fake electors should face real charges
