The fake elector defense: what Trump allies are saying to justify the 2020 scheme

The Guardian (UK) quotes Jim Gardner in an article reporting that three allies of Donald Trump were charged in Wisconsin on Tuesday for their roles in advancing the fake electors plan, but the 10 fake electors themselves have not yet been criminally charged. Some experts believe it is due to changes around the Electoral College. Gardner explains that changes to the Electoral Count Act do not legitimize the fake electors’ actions and that the charges they face often relate to state-level fraud and forgery laws. “What the Electoral Count Act did and still continues to do is to furnish Congress with a procedure to evaluate competing claims by competing slates of electors,” said Gardner. “And that’s all it does. So it is a piece of congressional self-regulation. It does not in any way regulate the behavior of other parties outside Congress.”