These GOP candidates signed fake Electoral College documents in states that Biden won: report

After Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election and defeated Donald Trump by more than 7 million votes, MAGA Republicans went to extreme lengths to overturn the election results —from the violent January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol Building to lawsuits making false voter fraud claims. Some Republicans even resorted to circulating fake Electoral College documents in states that Biden won — a matter that Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel believes should be criminally investigated by federal prosecutors. And a report by CNN’s Tom Foreman took a look at some of the GOP candidates who, in 2020, signed fake Electoral College documents that lied about the election results.

Those Republicans, according to Foreman, included former Rep. Lou Barletta (who is running for governor of Pennsylvania) and Burt Jones (who is running for lieutenant governor of Georgia) and Jim Lamon (who is running for the U.S. Senate seat presently held by Democrat Mark Kelly in Arizona).

“At issue is a scheme involving seven states where Joe Biden beat Donald Trump in the 2020 vote,” Foreman told CNN viewers. “What happened? After the election, as they should, those states sent certificates to Washington signed by the official electors — making it clear their electoral votes would go to Biden and Kamala Harris. But several groups of self-proclaimed Republican electors in all those states went rogue, sending their own documents to D.C. saying Trump won.”

Foreman’s report went on to show, side by side, the legitimate Electoral College certificates for states that Biden won and the fake Electoral College documents that MAGA Republicans circulated.

Foreman told CNN viewers, “Take a look: That’s a real certificate on the left, a fake one on the right. State election officials did not approve this maneuver, and the fake documents served no legitimate purpose.”

In Arizona, one of the fake Electoral College documents was signed by Kelli Ward, the far-right MAGA conspiracy theorist who chairs the Arizona Republican Party.

Foreman explained, “It all fits neatly into Trump’s efforts to stop certification of Biden’s win. From the outset, many on Team Trump wanted to kick the results back to Republican-controlled state legislatures so they could cast aside the will of the people and award their electoral votes to Trump.”