Sun file
Nevada Republican Party Chairman Michael McDonald is shown at a rally for then President Donald Trump on Sept. 10, 2020, in Las Vegas. McDonald is one of the Republican party leaders across multiple states suspected of pushing fake Electoral College documents to overturn President Joe Biden victory in the November 2020 presidential election.
Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2022 | 6:23 p.m.
The Nevada Republican party posted a photo in December 2020 on Twitter proclaiming that its “brave electors” stood up for what is right by casting their electoral votes for Donald Trump. It showed a photo of the would-be group of eight electors.
“We believe in fair elections and will continue the fight against voter fraud in the Silver State!” the party posted.
The problem is that the people in that photo weren’t electors and the meeting had no legal standing. Nevada’s real electors certified the election that same day, giving all six electoral votes to President Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.
The Nevada Republican party reportedly sent the document — titled “Certificate of the Votes of the 2020 Electors from Nevada” — to the National Archives. Republicans in a handful of states went through a similar fraudulent process.
A year later, state attorney generals are deciding whether any legal lines were crossed.
Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford said this evening that while he is aware of the issue, he can’t comment on the existence or nonexistence of an investigation.
“Our office has received numerous inquiries regarding some members of the state GOP attempting to award fake electoral votes to former President Donald Trump after the 2020 election,” Ford said in a statement. “While we cannot confirm or deny the existence of an investigation, rest assured that this matter is on our radar, and we take seriously any efforts to rob Nevadans of their votes.”
Those six “electors” included Nevada Republican Party Chairman Michael McDonald; James DeGraffenreid, a national committeeman and a district-level delegate to the 2016 Republican National Convention; Durward James Hindle III, vice chair of the Nevada Republican Committee; Jesse Law, chairman of the Clark County Republican Party; Shawn Meehan, founder of Guard the Constitution Project; and Eileen Rice, a delegate at the Nevada Republican Party.
Alternate electors at the event were Nye County Republican Central Committee Chairman Joe Burdzinski and Nevada Secretary of State candidate James Marchant, according to video footage.
Republicans in other states did something similar, including Arizona, Georgia, Michigan and New Mexico. The attorneys general in Michigan and New Mexico have referred the matters to federal prosecutors.
“Election laws are the foundation of our democracy and must be respected,” the Democratic New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas said in a written statement, according to the Albuquerque Journal. “While review under state law is ongoing, we have referred this matter to the appropriate federal law-enforcement authorities and will provide any assistance they deem necessary.”
Ford said there has been a sustained effort to invalidate the 2020 election, and his office will not accept any efforts to overturn the results. “Voting rights are fundamental to our democratic republic, and we will continue to protect them,” Ford said in the statement.
The Nevada Republican party and a couple of its local chapter leaders did not respond to requests for comment. Hindle declined to comment for the story and declined to say whether or not he took part in the events. The office of Nevada’s Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske declined to comment.
In a statement following the signing on Dec. 14, 2020, McDonald said that Nevada did not have a fair election due to the “irregularities and fraud seen throughout the state.” He said the votes will be sent to the U.S. Congress where they will be read on Jan. 6, 2021.
“A court of law has failed to meaningfully evaluate the evidence and our law enforcement agencies and government officials have failed to investigate,” the party said in the statement. “This left our electors no choice but to send their votes for President Trump to Congress to make a determination as to who is the rightful victor of Nevada between the dueling votes.”
The six electors who submitted the real election certification to the National Archives were Judith Whitmer, Sarah Mahler, Joseph Throneberry, Artemesia Blanco, Gabrielle D’Ayr and Vegas-area state senator Yvanna Cancela.
Nevada follows the Uniform Faithful Presidential Electors Act, which requires electors to vote for the presidential candidate who received the highest number of votes.
Whitmer, Nevada State Democratic Party Chair, said in a statement that she was proud to cast her official vote for Biden, who won Nevada’s six electoral college votes “fair and square.”
“I would like to think the best of my fellow Nevadans across the aisle and certainly hope that they mailed these votes in an act of symbolic protest, and not out of malicious or fraudulent intent, but given the behavior of far too many of their elected officials, that’s probably too generous,” Whitmer said in the statement.
Regardless, Whitmer said, she has no doubt that the 2020 election was free and fair, and that Biden was elected legitimately.
“I’m proud of the work we’ve done to make sure that all eligible Nevadans, regardless of their party affiliation, have access to the ballot box,” she said.
David Damore, professor and chair of the Department of Political Science at UNLV, said the Nevada Republican Party’s submission of those fake electoral votes is “just a stunt” and a hard case would have to be made to charge them with anything.
“This kind of shows where the party bases are, particularly the Republican party, and their sort of belief despite all the evidence to the contrary that Trump won,” Damore said. “And the irony, I think, of this whole thing is Republicans actually did a lot better in Nevada under the more liberal voting rules than they probably would have done otherwise.”
