After Donald Trump’s defeat in 2020, Republicans in several states created forged election materials, pretending to be “duly elected and qualified electors,” and sent the documents to, among others, the U.S. Senate and the U.S. Archivist, as if the fake materials were legitimate. They were not.
These Republicans came to be known as their party’s “fake electors.” The larger criminal scandal surrounding their scheme has racked up indictment totals unseen since Watergate and Iran-Contra.
With this in mind, it’s tempting to think that GOP officials would feel a degree of embarrassment about the entire controversy. Indeed, common sense might suggest that the recent indictments against fake electors would make these Republicans politically radioactive.
Apparently, it’s not quite working out that way.
We learned in May, for example, that several fake electors in Nevada were elected to serve as delegates to the Republican National Convention, even after they were criminally charged. “Clearly, lessons learned,” The Nevada Independent’s Jon Ralston said sarcastically in response to the news.
A month earlier, state prosecutors in Arizona indicted 18 Republicans as part of the party’s fake elector scheme, resulting in allegations of conspiracy, fraud and forgery. Some of them will be convention delegates, too. After the state GOP made the decision, The Arizona Republic’s Laurie Roberts summarized in a column: “The Arizona Republican Party on Saturday sent a flat out, full-throated, flabbergasting message to the voters of this great state. We be crazy, they proclaimed.”
Nevertheless, those delegates apparently have some company. CNN reported this week:








