Six of the so-called “fake electors” facing criminal charges for their roles in the 2020 election, have been chosen to once again serve as the Michigan Republican electors for 2024.
Here’s what you need to know.
What are electors, exactly?
Ahead of every presidential election, both the Democratic and Republican state parties select members (usually party leaders and activists) who will serve as their party’s presidential electors, if their candidate wins Michigan.
The winning party then gathers those electors at the state Capitol in December to sign a certificate casting each of the state’s Electoral College votes for the winning presidential and vice presidential candidate.
“Michigan voters can be assured that all … Michigan electoral votes automatically go to the presidential candidate winning the popular vote,” according to the Secretary of State’s office.
In the 2020 election, Michigan had 16 electoral votes (but is now down to 15, after the state’s population dropped). So both parties nominated 16 candidates to serve as their potential electors that year.
What happened in 2020?
On December 14, 2020, the 16 GOP members who had been nominated to be their party’s electors, gathered at the Michigan Republican party headquarters. There, they signed certificates stating they were the “duly elected and qualified electors for President and Vice President of the United States of America for the State of Michigan,” and were casting their electoral votes for then-President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.
But Trump had just lost Michigan to Joe Biden, by about 150,000 votes. (The Michigan Democratic electors convened at the state Capitol that same day, to cast their ballots for President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.)
Still, the certificates signed by the 16 GOP electors were then submitted to the U.S. Senate and the National Archives, which the Michigan Attorney General alleges was part of an “organized effort to circumvent the lawfully cast ballots of millions of Michigan voters in a presidential election.” (Similar events also happened in six other states.)
Last year, Nessel charged all 16 GOP electors with multiple felonies, including conspiracy to commit election law forgery. All pleaded not guilty, and one, James Renner of Lansing, agreed to a cooperation deal.
Attorneys for the defendants say they were essentially duped, and believed they were signing as merely an “alternate slate” of electors, in the event the Trump campaign successfully contested the results of the 2020 election. (State and federal judges ruled against the Trump campaign in more than 60 cases, according to the Brookings Foundation.)
“They were told at the meeting, by attorneys people trusted, that what they were signing was not going to be used unless one of two things happened: either the Legislature acted to take some action regarding the election, or a court case succeeded,” said Dave Kallman, an attorney representing Hank Choate of Cement City.
Choate is one of the 2020 GOP elector nominees who has been nominated to serve as an elector again in 2024.
“Of course, the very next day, this alternate slate was sent to the National Archives and sent to Congress,” Kallman said. “And so it was misrepresented to them how it was going to be used.”
Kallman also doesn’t think the Attorney General’s office will be able to prove all the electors met the legal definition of election forgery, which involves an “intent to defraud.”
According to Kallman, his client was never shown the full document that electors signed. While the first page contained statements “clearly not true,” including that the signatories were convening at the state Capitol, “my client never saw the first page. It was never shown to him ... and all they were presented with, the electors, was a signature page. …So I don't know how you can prove fraud or intent.”
But the Attorney General has argued that every “serious challenge to the election had been denied, dismissed, or otherwise rejected by the time the false electors convened.”
“There was no legitimate legal avenue or plausible use of such a document or an alternative slate of electors,” Nessel said in a statement when the charges were filed. “There was only the desperate effort of these defendants, who we have charged with deliberately attempting to interfere with and overturn our free and fair election process, and along with it, the will of millions of Michigan voters. That the effort failed and democracy prevailed does not erase the crimes of those who enacted the false electors plot.”
What does this mean for the 2024 election?
Mary Maddock, the executive director of the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at Georgetown Law, said the fact that the 2020 false electors are facing legal consequences could reduce the chance of a repeat in 2024.
“I actually am less alarmed about it than I think some people, and that’s because these people are being criminally charged,” said Maddock. “And at least while they’re being criminally charged, I am quite positive their attorneys will be saying to them, ‘Do not even thinking about doing something like this again.'"
The following six people have been nominated by the Michigan Republican party to serve as electors in 2024, according to party filings, and are facing charges for their roles in 2020:
- Hank Choate, of Cement City
- Amy Facchinello, of Grand Blanc
- John Haggard, of Charlevoix
- Timothy King, of Ypsilanti
- Former GOP co-chair, Meshawn Maddock, of Milford
- Marian Sheridan, of West Bloomfield
(Sheridan’s attorney declined to comment. Attorneys for Maddock, Haggard, and King did not respond to requests for comment.)
“It's a totally different scenario having gone through all this litigation now,” Amy Facchinello’s attorney, Paul Stablein, said Friday. Facchinello, who’s on the Grand Blanc school board and reportedly faced a recall effort last year, and the other electors “are really just victims of what the lawyers that were representing the Trump campaign were telling them,” he said. But in 2024, he would advise her “against signing [a certificate] unless the Board of Canvassers had declared Trump the winner in Michigan.”
Kallman said much the same.
“Clearly my client will be more cautious this time around,” he said. “If it comes out and the Secretary of State says Harris has won Michigan, then I think clearly my client will be acting accordingly. If he's asked to sign something else, I think he would be very reluctant to do so.”
If President Trump wins Michigan in 2024, then these six will be among the 15 Republican electors who officially cast the state’s crucial Electoral College votes for him.
“I just find it kind of ironic, in a way … that my client could sign as an elector for 2024 for Donald Trump,” Kallman said.
