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Pennsylvania Fake Electors

About

Twenty Republican activists in Pennsylvania attempted to subvert the results of the 2020 presidential election by submitting fake Electoral College documents to Congress as part of the January 6, 2021, certification process. The group includes a handful of prominent members of the Pennsylvania Republican Party, one of whom was subpoenaed by the Department of Justice for his role in the scheme.

The 20 fake electors mailed signed, notarized certificates to Congress and the National Archives purporting to be official Electoral College votes for Trump. These people were identified in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s 45-page federal indictment issued in August 2023.

However, analysts have argued that the Pennsylvania fake electors are unlikely to be prosecuted due to a small caveat they filed alongside their fake paperwork. “Unlike the Trump electors in most of the other states, Pennsylvania’s said they were only putting themselves forward as the state’s legitimate electors if courts sided with the former president in the numerous election challenges he was pursuing at the time,” wrote journalists with the Philadelphia Inquirer. “He lost all of those lawsuits.” This analysis has been confirmed by the state’s then-Attorney General Josh Shapiro (now governor) and its current AG Michelle Henry.

In July 2024, the Pennsylvania GOP sent three of its fake electors to represent the state party at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. That included Thomas Carroll, an attorney who represented two local county commissioners as part of a legal dispute about voting machine breaches. During the civil litigation, the state’s Supreme Court sanctioned both Carroll and the county for defying a court order blocking access to the machines, yet they face no criminal charges.

Politico reported that in December 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 a day before the fake electors met in their various states.

The Big Lie

The following 20 fake electors from Pennsylvania signed bogus documents claiming that Trump had won the 2020 election in their state:

  • Bill Bachenberg: NRA board member
  • Lou Barletta: former member of the U.S. House of Representatives and a 2022 candidate for governor of Pennsylvania who lost in the GOP primary
  • Tom Carroll: a member of the Northampton County Republican Committee with a history of claiming election fraud; resigned as assistant district attorney for the county after allegations of racist behavior
  • Ted Christian: Pennsylvania state director for Trump’s 2016 campaign
  • Chuck Coccodrilli: formerly a board member for the Pennsylvania Great Frontier PAC, but now deceased
  • Bernadette Comfort: vice chairwoman for the Pennsylvania Republican Party
  • Sam DeMarco III: chairman of the Allegheny County Republican Party and at-large member of the Allegheny County Council; subpoenaed by the Department of Justice for his role in the fake electors scheme
  • Marcela Diaz-Myers: chairwoman of the PA GOP Hispanic Advisory Council
  • Christie DiEsposti: an account representative at Pure Water Technology
  • Josephine Ferro: former president of the Pennsylvania Federation of Republican Women
  • Charlie Gerow: a GOP political strategist, vice chair of the American Conservative Union, and CEO of the Harrisburg-based PR firm Quantum Communications
  • Kevin Harley: managing director of Quantum Communications
  • Leah Hoopes: Republican committeewoman for Bethel Township
  • Ash Khare: an Electoral College elector in 2016 and an active member of the Republican Party
  • Andre McCoy: a director of government affairs with more than 30 years of military service and civilian experience
  • Lisa Patton: a former Pennsylvania events director for Trump’s 2020 campaign
  • Pat Poprik: chair of the Bucks County Republican Committee
  • Andy Reilly: a national committeeman for the Republican Party of Pennsylvania and former member of the Delaware County Council
  • Suk Smith: owner of the firearms training center Patriot Arms Inc. and the martial arts school Dragons Way School of Kenpo Inc.
  • Calvin Tucker: a former Trump campaign adviser and deputy chairman and director of engagement and advancement for the Pennsylvania Republican Party

The following seven people were originally planning to act as fake electors but were ultimately replaced:

  • Robert Asher: a former chairman of the Republican State Committee of Pennsylvania who was convicted of conspiracy and bribery
  • Robert Gleason: former chair of the Pennsylvania Republican Party
  • Thomas Marino: a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives
  • Lance Stange: former chairman of the northeast caucus of the Republican Party of Pennsylvania
  • Lawrence Tabas: chairman of the Republican Party of Pennsylvania. Prior to the 2020 election, Tabas said that he spoke with the Trump reelection campaign about state legislatures directly appointing electors, but claimed that his remarks were taken out of context.
  • Christine Toretti: national committeewoman for the Pennsylvania Republican Party
  • Carolyn Welsh: former sheriff of Chester County and a Trump campaigner in Pennsylvania