Indictment of Alternate Electors Despite Active Legislative Decertification Dispute (AZ)

Following the 2020 election, alternate Republican electors convened to cast a provisional slate preserving constitutionally authorized remedies for Congress to exercise. Concurrently, state legislators introduced HCR 2033 to formally decertify Arizona’s election results. Years after Congress accepted the certification, Attorney General Kris Mayes initiated a grand jury proceeding and indicted 18 individuals associated with the alternate slate. The source document notes that Mayes privately admitted the election was “challengeable,” creating a credible basis to characterize the prosecution as a retroactive lawfare effort to criminalize a historically established constitutional contingency process rather than a good-faith election law enforcement action. The prosecution therefore had the effect – regardless of ultimate legal resolution – of deterring future use of the constitutional alternate-elector mechanism.