'How do you convey laughter in a newspaper article?' Trump’s fake electors aren't going for it again

10 December 2023

Many voters who served as fake electors in support of ex-President Donald Trump during the 2020 election are adamantly rejecting the idea of helping the MAGA hopeful again next year.

"How do you convey laughter in a newspaper article?" former Wisconsin Republican Party chairman and GOP elector Andrew Hitt said to The Washington Post. "No, I will not be serving as an elector again."

Hitt's comments come as ten Wisconsin GOPers earlier this week, according to ABC News, "settled a civil lawsuit and admitted their actions were part of an effort to overturn President Joe Biden's victory."

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Additionally this week, former Trump attorney and Georgia election case co-defendant Kenneth Chesebro — "who was one of the architects of the 'fake elector' scheme that attempted to overturn the 2020 election in multiple swing states — "is now assisting state attorneys general in both Michigan and Wisconsin's fake elector investigation," CNN reports.

"Knowing what I know now? No," Republican Party activist and Ken Carroll told the Post in response to whether he'd serve as a fake elector again. "But hindsight provides a wealth of knowledge we don't have at the time of an event."

Noting that "Carroll was one of 84 Republican presidential electors who convened to cast votes for Trump in 2020 across seven states where Joe Biden had been declared the certified winner," the Post reports, "In the past few months, 25 of those 84 electors have been charged with felonies, such as forgery, false statements and filing false documents."

The Post notes:

Another force will make it harder for electors to do what Trump’s slates did in 2020: The Electoral Count Reform Act of 2022, bipartisan legislation intended to prevent the chaos surrounding the events of the last presidential election.

Among other provisions, the new law empowers a state executive, typically the governor, to determine which slate of electors — Republican or Democratic — will be counted during the joint session of Congress. No other entity or individual is given the power to do so, and Congress is required to accept that determination, absent a court ruling.

"I think the message being sent on a state-by-state basis, without necessarily any coordination and without the overarching reach of a federal prosecution is: don't mess around with the integrity of state election proceedings," ex-US attorney Carol Lam told the Post.

Still, Atlanta, Georgia GOP consultant Brian Robinson said, "The party will find no shortage of volunteers for the job," but some might hesitate. He added, "With the precedent now set by the district attorney, electors of both parties might get a little nervous if it's once again a razor-thin margin, which is quite possible."

Hitt, who no longer supports Trump, the Post notes "has been cooperating with federal special counsel Jack Smith's investigation since May 2022, said Trump won't have any problem finding people who will serve as electors next year if he wins the party's nomination."

He said, "There will be activists who will do it, no doubt about it. They're not going to have a hard time because they still have people who will do anything for the guy.

The Washington Post's full report is here (subscription required).

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