AP Photo/Lynne Sladky
- Several fake electors say they regret their actions in the aftermath of the 2020 election, per WaPo.
- "Hindsight provides a wealth of knowledge we don't have at the time," one fake elector said.
- In recent months, 25 of the 84 fake electors have been charged with felonies.
It was one of the most bizarre aspects of the 2020 presidential election's aftermath: Fake electors in states won by Joe Biden convened in an attempt to award Electoral College votes to Donald Trump.
The plans failed, but several of the 84 GOP presidential electors who met to cast ballots for Trump told The Washington Post that they wouldn't do it again. Some of the electors are now entangled in criminal probes and could face criminal charges, with mounting legal expenses also adding to their worries.
In December 2020, Republican activist James "Ken" Carroll cast an electoral vote for Trump at the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta as part of an "alternate" slate of delegates, despite Biden's certified victory in the former Republican stronghold-turned-swing state. He was one of 16 GOP signatories to do so.
But Carroll told The Post that he wouldn't take the same action if he could go back in time.
"Knowing what I know now? No," Carroll said. "But hindsight provides a wealth of knowledge we don't have at the time of an event."
In recent months, 25 of the 84 electors involved in alternate elector schemes have been charged with a series of felonies, and 10 additional electors have agreed not to put their names forward as legitimate electors in any election featuring Trump on the ballot.
In Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, fake electors sought to overturn the election by filing paperwork stating that it was Trump — and not Biden — who had truly won the election.
Last week, the 10 bogus electors involved in the electoral scheme in Wisconsin had to accept Trump's statewide loss in the 2020 race as part of a settlement, according to The New York Times. They are also prohibited from serving as electors in 2024 or for any race where Trump is listed as a candidate.
Andrew Hitt, an attorney and former chairman of the Wisconsin Republican Party in 2020 — and a fake elector — insisted that the GOP electors crafted their plan in the event that the courts ruled that Trump had won the state. (Biden won Wisconsin by roughly 20,000 votes out of nearly 3.3 million ballots cast, but in November 2020, the Trump campaign had challenged the victory in court.)
"The Wisconsin electors were tricked and misled into participating in what became the alternate elector scheme and would have never taken any actions had we known that there were ulterior reasons beyond preserving an ongoing legal strategy," Hitt said in a statement last week.
Hitt, who told The Post that he won't be backing Trump again in 2024, added that even if he could serve as an official elector next year, he'd take a pass.
"How do you convey laughter in a newspaper article?" he said. "No, I will not be serving as an elector again."