About
Eleven Republican residents of Arizona attempted to subvert the results of the 2020 presidential election by submitting fake Electoral College documents to Congress as part of the Jan. 6. 2021 certification process. The group did so in conjunction with similar fake elector schemes in Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
According to the Arizona Mirror, on Dec. 14, 2020 the 11 fake electors mailed signed, notarized certificates to Congress and the National Archives purporting to be official Electoral College votes for Trump. The fake electors from Arizona include an Arizona state representative, a former state representative who was then running for state Senate, and a candidate for U.S. Senate. Several of the fake electors were subpoenaed by the Department of Justice for their role in the scheme. Arizona state law prohibits electors from casting votes for candidates other than the one winner of the state.
Politico reported that on Dec. 13, 2020, Christina Bobb, then a One America News anchor and subsequently a legal representative for the former president, briefed a group of Trump’s lawyers on the scheme.
January 6, 2021
- Fake elector Anthony Kern participated in the mob attack on the Capitol and lied about the level of his involvement.
The Big Lie
- The following 11 fake electors from Arizona signed bogus documents claiming that Trump had won the 2020 election in their state:
- Tyler Bowyer: COO of Turning Point USA, a conservative activist organization
- Nancy Cottle: vice president of programs for the Arizona Federation of Republican Women. She also has ties to other Republican groups and subpoenaed by the Department of Justice for her role in the scheme.
- Jake Hoffman: an Arizona state representative who formerly ran Rally Forge, a digital marketing company that was banned from Facebook for paying teens to share conservative social media posts on behalf of Turning Point. According to The Verge, Hoffman’s current political advertising firm 1TEN received millions from an anonymous donor to support Trump-backed election conspiracy theory advocate Kari Lake in the 2022 Arizona gubernatorial race, which she lost.
- Anthony Kern: a former Arizona state representative and 2022 Trump-endorsed candidate for Arizona state Senate, who won; also a member of the American Legislative Exchange Council
- Jim Lamon: a 2022 candidate for U.S. Senate who lost in the GOP primary
- Robert Montgomery: a former chair of the Cochise County Republican Committee
- Samuel I. Moorhead: the second vice chair of the Gila County Arizona Republican Party
- Loraine B. Pellegrino: a former president of Ahwatukee Republican Women, she was subpoenaed by the Department of Justice for her role in the scheme
- Greg Safsten: a former executive director of the Republican Party of Arizona, with ties to U.S. representatives from Arizona.
- Kelli Ward: chair of the Arizona Republican Party, former Arizona state senator, and an American Legislative Exchange Council member who was subpoenaed by the Department of Justice for her role in the scheme
- Michael Ward: Kelli’s husband, who was accused of spitting in the eye of a former campaign volunteer for his wife and was subpoenaed by the Department of Justice for his role in the fake electors scheme
Election Audits
- According to the States Newsroom, fake elector Kelli Ward filed a number of lawsuits to attempt to nullify Arizona’s election results. She also unsuccessfully sued to ban mail-in voting in Arizona.