Arizona Trump fans posed as electors to submit a document trying to seize the state's 11 votes for him instead of Biden, report says
- A group of self-appointed "electors" submitted a notarized document to award Arizona's 11 electoral votes to President Donald Trump, the Arizona Republic reported.
- The Arizona Republic said the document appeared to be fake.
- The group, AZ Protect the Vote, appears to have been emboldened by national and statewide efforts to overturn Arizona's result, which was confirmed on Monday.
- Republican Gov. Doug Ducey acknowledged President-elect Joe Biden's win there on November 30, but several GOP figures have encouraged election challenges.
Supporters of President Donald Trump in Arizona submitted a document meant to wrongly hand the state's 11 electoral votes to him instead of President-elect Joe Biden, according to the Arizona Republic.
Members of a group called AZ Protect the Vote styled themselves as electors and produced a notarized replica of the document finalizing the winner of the state's electoral votes, the newspaper reported on Monday.
The group boasted that it sent the document to officials in Washington, DC, sooner than the real Arizona electors, according to the report.
Its plan had no effect on the outcome of any electoral processes but showed the lengths to which some Trump supporters are prepared to go to baselessly assert that he, not Biden, won the election.
The Arizona Republic said that the document didn't appear to be real and that it was notarized by Melanie Hunsaker, a real-estate professional whose husband is a Trump supporter.
Lori Osiecki, who was involved in making the document, told the paper: "We seated before the legislators here. We already turned it in. We beat them to the game."
The document, called a certificate of ascertainment, is the formal mechanism for conveying a state's electoral votes. It is sent to the National Archives in Washington, DC, which reviews its legality.
It is unclear whether submitting the fake document broke any rules. The National Archives did not immediately return Business Insider's request for clarification.
The state's Republican governor, Doug Ducey, acknowledged Arizona's result on November 30, getting into a Twitter spat with Trump over the president's loss.
However, several high-profile Arizona Republicans have denied the election results. Reps. Andy Biggs and Debbie Lesko were among the 126 GOP figures who supported an ultimately failed Supreme Court bid to overturn the results.
Rep. Paul Gosar wrote an open letter on December 8 suggesting that Trump had been subjected to a coup.
The Associated Press and Fox News called Arizona for Biden on election night, infuriating many Trump supporters. (Insider called the state for Biden more than a week later, on November 12.)
The state certified its result on November 30, according to the AP. It was formalized on Monday when presidential electors cemented Biden's victory by confirming his 306 electoral votes - including all 11 from Arizona.