LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Nevada lawmakers will once again debate a bill to penalize a person who creates a false slate of presidential electors — except this time with lesser penalties.
Democratic State Sen. Skip Daly, of Washoe County, reintroduced the so-called “fake electors” bill — numbered this legislative session as Senate Bill 102 — which would punish a person who commits the act to at least a year in prison.
The Nevada Legislature passed a similar bill during the last session, with a greater penalty of at least four years in prison, but Republican Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo vetoed it. In his veto message, Lombardo said the penalty was too high.
In addition to prison time and a fine, the bill would prohibit a person convicted of violating the law from holding a state or local government job, and bar them from elected or appointed office.
Voters do not vote for presidential candidates themselves but for a slate of electors, mainly political party leaders, who then in turn vote for the preferred candidate. In December 2020, six electors from the Nevada Republican Party signed paperwork claiming President Donald Trump won the election when he lost. The group then mailed their certificates to Washington, D.C.
That year, former Nevada Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske, a Republican, oversaw the official state ceremony, which certified the state’s six electoral votes for former President Joe Biden. In a statement after the event, Nevada GOP chair Michael McDonald said the party’s electors convened in Carson City due to ongoing legal battles seeking to overturn the election results.
In 2023, a Clark County grand jury indicted the group on charges of offering a false instrument for filing and uttering a forged instrument — felonies that carry penalties of up to four or five years in prison. A district court judge later dismissed the case citing venue. The Nevada Attorney General’s Office has since appealed that decision and refiled the case in Carson City.
Trump won re-election in November against Vice President Kamala Harris by more than 46,000 votes. Two of the Republican electors from 2020 served as Republican Party electors in November, signing the state’s certificate of ascertainment for Trump’s win. Democrats did not hold any meritless ceremonies or submit false paperwork after Harris’ loss.
Daly’s bill was scheduled to have a hearing on Feb. 18 in the Senate Committee on Legislative Operations and Elections.
