Fury at Michigan officials charged in 2020 false electors scheme: ‘This isn’t who we are’

BagOfHammers@lemmy.world to politics @lemmy.world – 105 points –
Fury at Michigan officials charged in 2020 false electors scheme: ‘This isn’t who we are’
theguardian.com
10

You are viewing a single comment

The question swirling in my mind, given this article, is: how were these people expecting to get away with such blatant crimes?

Some notable quotes:

(Re: Kent Vanderwood)

“His willingness to sign a fake elector paper and try to send that in and negate Michigan’s actual vote speaks to his integrity,” Herweyer said of Vanderwood, who was then a member of the Wyoming, Michigan, city council. “How can I trust anything he does?”

In a statement, Vanderwood’s attorney wrote that the mayor “had no intent to defraud anyone” when he signed his name as an elector in 2020...

But he wasn't an elector. He was a false elector. I'm not understanding how his lawyer could suggest there was no intent to defraud anyone. Isn't that an obvious contradiction?

(Re: Stan Grot)

“Over 2 million people voted for Joe Biden in Michigan, and Stan Grot decided that our votes didn’t matter,” said Alisa Diez, a Democratic party activist in Shelby Township, where Stanley Grot, one of the 16 false electors, currently serves as township clerk.

(Re: Amy Facchinello)

In Grand Blanc, a small city south of Flint, Michigan, Amy Facchinello, a school board member who in 2021 generated outrage for promoting the QAnon conspiracy theory on social media and now faces charges for her participation in forging the false electors’ certificate...

The crime scene:

Vanderwood, Grot, Facchinello and the 13 others charged met “covertly” in the basement of the Michigan Republican party headquarters in December 2020 to sign paperwork falsely claiming to be official electors, Nessel said, calling the action “an attempt to outmaneuver and circumvent the longstanding electoral college process”.

Does anyone have any idea how these people were going to get away with these crimes? This is astounding.

If they got away with it they'd be hailed as heroes (in their mind, in reality would be eliminated to prevent them from talking)

They bet on the wrong horse, and the one they expected to get a pardon from didn't win. They proverbially fucked around and are now finding out.

Perhaps the goal was to get caught and sow doubt about the integrity of our elections and our democracy.

13 people are not voluntarily going to prison to potentially sow doubt about election procedures.