Democrats are targeting State Senator Jake Hoffman (R-Queen Creek), a champion of election integrity, by driving a truck around his district with a lit-up billboard apparently referencing him. It said, “Arizona’s fake electors tried to steal your voice in 2020. Don’t let them do it again in 2024.” Hoffman was one of 11 Republican electors chosen by Arizona Republican leadership as a possible alternate slate after the 2020 election due to concerns about election illegalities. The truck was seen driving on January 6, the anniversary of the J6 protest at the U.S. Capitol.
Hoffman responded and posted photos of the truck on X. “Extremist Democrats in Arizona think that driving a billboard around my district lying about me and defaming me will scare me into resigning,” he said. “IT WON’T. IT STRENGTHENS MY RESOLVE. It makes me fight harder for the Constitution and the Bill of Rights to save this country.”
Extremist Democrats in Arizona think that driving a billboard around my district lying about me and defaming me will scare me into resigning.
IT WON’T.
IT STRENGTHENS MY RESOLVE.
It makes me fight harder for the Constitution and the Bill of Rights to save this country. pic.twitter.com/PilNlh28iP
— Jake Hoffman (@JakeHoffmanAZ) January 6, 2024
Although the billboard refers to “fake electors,” constitutional legal experts have revealed that there were several presidential elections throughout U.S. history where alternate slates of electors were considered by the vice president, and some were accepted and certified. In the 1960 election, there were three electoral slates produced from Hawaii, including a second one from the Democrats that was not officially certified by the governor or any other state entity such as the state legislature. The second and third slates were proposed due to concerns there was wrongdoing in the initial ballot count favoring Republicans, which had resulted in litigation.
No one referred to the Democrats’ uncertified second slate, which was ultimately not accepted, as fake. After the litigation concluded, the third slate, which was from the Democrats also, was accepted by Vice President Nixon.
In Arizona, the alternate electoral slate produced by Republicans was not certified by the governor or Arizona Legislature, although there was evidence the legislature was considering it. The slate was made up of mostly Republican officials like Hoffman, including State Senator Anthony Kern (R-Glendale) and then-Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward. The Arizona Republican Party’s announcement about the slate said it was following the model of Hawaii’s second slate, proposing it while the litigation is hashed out.
During the disbarment trial of Donald Trump’s former attorney and constitutional legal scholar John Eastman, another constitutional scholar, Berkeley law professor John Yoo, testified that every legal scholar except one who has written about the issue, University of Virginia law professor John Harrison, believes based on previous elections involving alternate slates and interpreting the Constitution that the vice president has substantive authority to accept or reject alternate electoral slates from disputed states.
The billboard was provided by All Voting is Local Action (AVLA). AVLA states on its website that it is focusing on eight swing states including Arizona. AVLA is targeting the alternate slates of electors from the 2020 election, and issued a press release last month praising the indictment of an alternate slate in Nevada as a “victory for democracy.” Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes is investigating the alternate Arizona slate.
On Friday, Democratic New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez said that the state’s GOP alternate slate of electors cannot be prosecuted. Similar to the Arizona alternate slate, those documents “were hinged on Trump winning his challenges.” The statement issued by the AZGOP said the courts would decide which slate to ultimately choose, “The legitimacy and good sense of two sets of electors meeting on December 14 to cast competing votes for President and Vice President, with the conflict to be later sorted out by the courts and Congress, was pointed out by prominent Democratic lawyers Van Jones and Larry Lessig in an essay published last month on CNN.com.”
Previously, AVLA condemned the Cochise County Supervisors for delaying certification of the 2022 election over concerns about election illegalities. AVLA also actively promotes relaxing laws against abortion.
Alex Gulotta is the director of AVLA in Arizona. Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs appointed him to an elections task force last March.
Gulotta testified to the U.S. House Administration Committee Subcommittee on Elections in 2019 against Arizona’s ballot harvesting ban and photo ID requirements. “[I]n November 2018 at Arizona State University’s main campus in Tempe, Arizona, long lines to vote were reported throughout the day — and the last votes were not cast until two hours after the polls closed,” he said to bolster his argument. “Despite the advocacy efforts of All Voting Is Local and many other advocacy groups, attempts to keep the polls open past 7 pm were not successful. Not everyone has the privilege of being able to wait in line for hours to vote. Voters have jobs, voters have classes, voters have family responsibilities.”
His bio provided to Congress states that he “served the access to justice community for more than thirty years as an anti-poverty advocate.” He previously worked for legal aid in San Francisco, where “[u]nder his tenure, BayLegal significantly increased its impact litigation and policy advocacy.”
While serving in the Arizona Legislature, Hoffman championed several election integrity bills, including sponsoring HB 2492 which was signed into law in 2022. It requires proof of U.S. citizenship to vote in Arizona elections. Hoffman was the only Arizona legislator to score 100 percent in the American Conservative Union’s most recently published ratings, and has frequently received perfect or the top score from similar organizations’ legislative ratings.
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Rachel Alexander is a reporter at The Arizona Sun Times and The Star News Network. Follow Rachel on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “State Rep Jake Hoffman” and “Mobile Billboard” by State Rep Jake Hoffman.
