by Dana Gentry, Nevada Current
Gov. Joe Lombardo’s veto of a bill outlawing attempts to redirect the state’s electoral votes in a presidential election will be used against him should he seek re-election, say Democrats. Conversely, Attorney General Aaron Ford, the highest-ranking elected Democrat in the state and a prospective challenger to Lombardo, could benefit politically from his decision not to file charges against Nevada’s band of fake electors.
As the nation awaits the expected third indictment of former President Donald Trump for his role in the Jan. 6 attempted coup at the U.S. Capitol, and Michigan’s attorney general moves forward with criminal charges against fake electors in that state, Ford is standing by his decision not to charge Nevada’s fake electors.
Ford declined last week to comment on the record about fake electors and directed the Current to his testimony in favor of Senate Bill 133, a measure vetoed by Lombardo that would have criminalized serving as a fake elector or conspiring to create a false slate of electors.
“With it on our radar, we ascertained that current state statutes did not directly address the conduct in question — to the dismay of some, and I’m sure, to the delight of others,” Ford testified during a SB133 hearing in May.
But political insiders and observers have contemplated whether the move was more driven by political motivations. Ford has not publicly announced an intention to run against Lombardo, but it’s widely believed he’s mulling a run.
“The only thing that makes sense to me, would be the fact that, unlike Governor Sisolak, AG Ford did pretty well in our rural counties,” says Sondra Cosgrove of Vote Nevada, a non-profit focused on good governance and civic education. “Why alienate those voters if he plans to run for governor in 2026?”
Progressive activist Annette Magnus says Ford’s success in rural Nevada may have been temporary and more likely the result of Republican opponent Sigal Chattah’s unpopularity.
Republican consultant Lisa Mayo De Riso also attributes Ford’s success in rural Nevada “to the immensely poor quality of candidate” the GOP had in Chattah. “Governor Lombardo is a higher-quality candidate, so it’s apples to oranges.”
Chattah once suggested Ford, a Black man, “should be hanging from a f–king crane.”
Magnus says she believes Ford had concerns about prevailing in a prosecution absent a law specifically addressing the alleged offenses by the fake electors, but says she thinks the decision not to prosecute “has more to do with his run for governor.”
Democratic state Sen. Skip Daly, who sponsored the fake elector bill, told the Current he is not a prosecuting attorney and won’t second guess Ford’s decision not to charge.
“There was nothing on point, so the best you could have gotten was fraud, or falsifying records,” Daly said. “You could have said that they were trying to defraud the government. There were a couple of other theories.”
Ford’s decision not to prosecute Nevada fake electors came before Lombardo vetoed Daly’s fake electors legislation.
Lombardo and others opposed to the bill argued the penalties it mandated, which included a prohibition on holding public office, were too strict.
“There should be strict punishments for those seeking to undermine that confidence, including those engaged in schemes to present slates of false electors,” Lombardo wrote. “That said, it is difficult to fathom how the penalty for being engaged in such a scheme should be harsher-in terms of time-served and by requiring a permanent relinquishment of certain unrelated employment rights-than the penalty for high-level fentanyl traffickers, certain domestic violence perpetrators, and even some of the most extreme and violent actors on January 6.”
“Daly made many concessions and Lombardo still made excuses,” said Magnus.
“Treason is a pretty, pretty big thing,” Daly told the Current, rejecting Lombardo’s argument. “The Republicans say ‘Oh this has only happened once. Jesus Christ, put something in the law that’s going to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
Nevada has laws that mirror those used to bring charges in Michigan, such as a prohibition against forgery. Nevada Revised Statute 239.300 makes it a category C felony to falsify any record.
Michigan is the first of seven states caught up in the fake elector scheme to file charges against its state’s fake electors.
“No one in Michigan should be able to forge election related documents with impunity,” Norman Eisen of the States United Democracy Center told the Michigan Advance last week. “The [attorney general] and her office have often charged others who have created false and fraudulent documents, including Democrats.”
When election security is assaulted, the electoral system will respond, Eisen added.
In Nevada, six Republicans held a public signing ceremony in December 2020, and filed documents with the state and federal government pledging Nevada’s electoral votes to Trump, who lost the state to Joe Biden by more than 30,000 votes.
“We the undersigned, being the duly elected and qualified Electors for President and Vice President of the United States of America from the State of Nevada, do hereby certify…” the six attested in a document filed with Congress, the National Archives, and the Nevada Secretary of State, and first obtained by American Oversight, a federal watchdog organization.
But those who signed were not the duly elected and qualified Electors. According to reports and evidence from congressional hearings, they and fake electors from six other states — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — were actors in Trump’s attempt to masquerade as the winner.
At a speech this month in Las Vegas, Trump thanked three of the six fake electors — McDonald, Clark County GOP Chair Jesse Law and Nevada Republican National Committeeman Jim Degraffenreid.
“Michael McDonald has been my friend for a long time,” Trump said.
CNN reported in June that special prosecutor Jack Smith granted McDonald and Degraffenreid limited immunity to testify before a federal grand jury. The two were seen in Washington outside the building where the grand jury had been meeting.
An immunity deal at the federal level would not preclude state charges.
Alongside McDonald, Law and Degraffenreid, the other three Nevadans who participated in the fake elector scheme were Durward James Hindle III, vice-chair of the state Republican Committee; Shawn Meehan, a member of the Douglas County Republican Party; and Eileen Rice, also a member of the Douglas County Republican Party.
Like Trump, Lombardo has remained connected to the fake electors, endorsing Law for his recent reelection campaign as head of the Clark County GOP.
Lombardo’s spokeswoman Elizabeth Ray declined to say whether Lombardo supports Ford’s refusal to file charges against the fake electors. Asked whether Ford, by not pursuing charges, and Lombardo, by vetoing SB 133, are paving the way for election fraudsters to engage in mischief with impunity, Ray responded “No comment.”
Magnus says although Democrats will attempt to use Lombardo’s veto of SB 133 against him, she’s not concerned the veto and Ford’s refusal to file charges against the fake electors will put Nevada’s election integrity at risk. She’s confident the federal government will take care of it.
Trump, while in Las Vegas, indicated he is already preparing for legal challenges in 2024, saying Chattah, who is now a Republican National Committeewoman, is “going to be litigating when they start to cheat.”
He also said having Lombardo in office is a “big advantage, as opposed to the previous governor that was not much of an advantage.”
Nevada Current is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Nevada Current maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Hugh Jackson for questions: [email protected]. Follow Nevada Current on Facebook and Twitter.
