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

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.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

When the news broke in 2020 that 16 Republicans in Michigan had signed a certificate falsely claiming to be electors for Donald Trump, Rose Herweyer was dismayed to find a prominent local politician, Kent Vanderwood, listed among the signatories.

Across the state, a mayor, a school board member and a township clerk whose role includes administering elections have each been arraigned and have pleaded not guilty, and in each community, constituents are pushing for accountability.

At a packed public meeting of the township board of trustees on 15 August, residents questioned Grot’s ability to serve as clerk, given the pending charges and the fact that he can no longer perform a key function of his post.

At least 17 fake electors across the US currently serve in public office, including the Arizona state senator Anthony Kern, Georgia’s lieutenant governor, Burt Jones and Robert Spindell, a member of the Wisconsin elections commission.

In letters to the Wyoming city council and the Shelby Township board of trustees, the advocates, referring to themselves as the Democracy Coalition, called on the local governments to address the issue of the false electors.

Herweyer, who worked the polls during the 2020 presidential election and spoke at the 7 August city council meeting, said she already believed Vanderwood’s role as a false elector in 2020 disqualified him for public office when he ran for mayor in 2022.

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