Justice needs to be delivered in 2020 election fraud cases

In the days and weeks following the 2020 election, partisans across the country resorted to lies and deception in an attempt to defraud the American people and steal the White House.

Although Joe Biden was the clear and unequivocal winner, recording large margins in the popular vote and the Electoral College, 84 fake electors signed declarations certifying that Donald Trump had won their seven battleground states.

He didn’t do it.

The electoral votes in question were nearly a third of the number needed to win the presidency and would have been more than enough to overturn Biden’s victory, granting Trump a second term against the wishes of most voters.

For some, the attempted election theft is old (and impatiently buried) news.

The events that culminated in the violent assault on the Capitol and the attempt to prevent Biden from taking office occurred half a decade ago, shovel-wielders might say, making them as relevant as those faded social distancing stickers you still see in some stores. Additionally, Trump was granted a runoff to the White House by a majority of voters in 2024.

But that’s just old news if you believe that justice and integrity have an expiration date, that wrongdoing is acceptable over time, and that the core values ​​of our country and its democracy — starting with fair and honest elections — only matter to the extent that they help your political side prevail.

It bears repeating: “What we’re talking about here is an attempt to overturn the outcome of a presidential election,” said Sean Morales-Doyle, who directs the voting rights and elections program at the Brennan Center for Justice, a legal and policy think tank at New York University. “If people can engage in this kind of behavior without consequences or accountability, then we should be concerned that it will happen again. »

This is why punishment and deterrence are so important.

Last week, the Nevada Supreme Court unanimously reinstated criminal charges against six Republicans who signed certificates falsely claiming that Trump won the state’s electoral votes. Among those charged are Nevada Republican Party Chairman Michael McDonald and state Republican National Committee Representative Jim DeGraffenreid.

The ruling focused on a procedural question: Whether the charges should have been filed in Douglas County, where the fake certificates were signed in the state capital — Carson City — or in Clark County, where they were filed in a Las Vegas courthouse. A lower court ruled the charges should have been filed in Douglas County and threw out the case. The High Court overturned the decision, allowing infringement proceedings to continue.

This is completely normal. Let a jury decide.

Of course, the Nevada Six and other fake voters are just small freight. The ringleader and larceny attempter in chief – Donald “Find Me 11,780 Votes” Trump – escaped accountability by winning the 2024 election.

This month, he pardoned dozens of fake voters and others involved in attempted election theft — including his bungling ex-lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani — for any potential federal crimes. This decision was purely symbolic; Trump’s pardon power does not extend to cases in state courts.

But it was further proof of his complete disregard for the rule of law. (Just hours after taking office, Trump pardoned nearly 1,600 defendants – including some who brutalized police officers with pepper spray and wooden and metal poles – who were involved in the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.)

Efforts across the country to pursue even the schemers, cheaters and disbelievers of the 2020 election have produced mixed results.

In Michigan, a judge dismissed criminal charges against 15 bogus voters, finding that the government had not presented sufficient evidence showing intent to commit fraud.

In New Mexico and Pennsylvania, bogus voters avoided prosecution because their certification came with a caveat. He said the documentation was being submitted in case they were recognized as legitimate voters. The issue became moot once Trump lost his fight to overturn the election, although some in Trump’s orbit hoped the false certifications would help pressure Pence.

Derek Muller, a law professor at Notre Dame, takes a dim view of many of the cases brought by prosecutors, suggesting that the ballot box — rather than a courtroom — might be the best venue to argue the case.

“There’s a fine line between what constitutes distasteful conduct and what constitutes criminal conduct,” Muller said. “I don’t have any easy answers about what kinds of things should or shouldn’t be prosecuted at any given time, except to say if this is something new” – like these 2020 cases – “having a pretty solid legal theory is pretty essential if you want to prosecute people for engaging in this kind of political protest activity.”

Other cases persist.

Three fake voters are scheduled to appear next month in Wisconsin for a preliminary hearing on forgery charges. Fourteen defendants — including Giuliani and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows — face charges in Georgia. In Arizona, the state attorney general is expected to decide this week whether to move forward with the trial against 11 people after a judge threw out an indictment because of the way the case was presented to grand jurors.

Justice in the 2020 election is far from sure and speedy. But that’s no reason to give in.

The penalty for hijacking is at least 20 years in federal prison. This seems excessive to fake voters.

But dozens of bad actors tried to hijack an election. They should not be left behind.