Politically motivated prosecutors have begun charging the slates of alternate electors from the 2020 presidential election with crimes and are now investigating Arizona’s alternate electors. Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes campaigned on a platform promising to investigate the alternate 22 Republican electors. No one has been ever charged with a crime for participating in an alternate electoral slate until now, even though alternate electoral slates have been presented throughout history.
Mayes said during an interview in February, “There has to be a deterrent to this happening again. We can’t have this occurring again in Arizona — or in the country.”
One of the Arizona alternative slates included former Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward and other high-profile Republicans, and the other slate consisted of Republican activists.
According to The Washington Post, investigators from Mayes’ office started contacting the electors and their lawyers recently. According to Dan Barr, Mayes’s chief deputy, the investigation is in the “fact-gathering” phase.
On the federal side, Special Counsel Jack Smith has interviewed and subpoenaed about a dozen Arizonans in relation to the slates. The federal investigation began in early 2022.