VIRGINIA CITY, Nevada — Nearly two years after signing documents seeking to overturn Donald Trump's 2020 Nevada loss, Jim Hindle thanked everyone gathered in the committee rooms of a historic Nevada boomtown and asked them to bear with him while he learned how to oversee elections in rural Storey County.
Hindle was another replacement in what was a revolving door of county election officials across Nevada as the 2022 midterm elections approached. He had just fired the interim clerk, who had stepped in after the previous clerk resigned.
But Hindle's tenure in the heavily Republican county is part of a trend in battleground states where fake voters have maintained their influence on elections heading into 2024.
He is one of six Republicans indicted this month by Democratic Attorney General Aaron Ford for their alleged role in an effort to overturn the election results in the swing state, which carried Democrat Joe Biden by more than 33,000 votes over Republican got president.
Hindle and the others, who will be arraigned Monday, coordinated directly with Trump's team, according to transcripts of testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
Hindle told The Associated Press that he will continue organizing local elections despite the allegations. He declined to comment further.
Wisconsin, Arizona and Pennsylvania also have fake voters involved in the 2024 election.
The list also includes Bob Spindell, who remains a member of the bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission despite calls from Democrats to oust him. A Republican legislative leader who appointed Spindell said last week that he will not withdraw the nomination. He called the bogus voter scheme a “failed legal strategy” and “not a sinister plot to overturn elections.”
Spindell and the fake voters in Wisconsin reached a settlement this month, admitting that their actions were “part of an effort to improperly overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.”
In Arizona, fake voters Jake Hoffman and Anthony Kern are Republican lawmakers with powerful roles. Hoffman chairs the Senate Elections Committee, and Kern heads the Judiciary Committee. Arizona Attorney General Investigates Role of Fake Voters; no one has been charged.
Hoffman's position makes him the gatekeeper for virtually all pending election legislation. That has become especially controversial in the Western swing state, where Republicans have been aggressive in their efforts to overturn or call into question Democratic victories.
The FBI interviewed Sam DeMarco, a member of the three-member election board in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, in 2022. Despite the subpoenas issued to DeMarco and the other Republican electors in that state, they faced no legal consequences after declaring their electoral votes as “conditional” in the event that Trump won in court. DeMarco has often been critical of Trump's influence on the state party.
Michigan is a rare example where a fake voter has lost influence due to accusations. In July, the Michigan Bureau of Elections banned Shelby Township Clerk Stan Grot from conducting elections after the attorney general filed criminal charges against him and fifteen other Republicans for their role as fake voters.
In Nevada, Storey County's 3,750 active registered voters represent a small portion of the state's electorate. Even as Hindle and others remain in their roles as election officials and lawmakers, state election officials and state and federal courts could check their authority, said Wendy Weiser, director of the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice.
Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar's office, which administers elections across the state, did not respond to questions about whether the indictment could affect Hindle's election role.
But Hindle's influence does not stop at the provincial border. He is one of three fake voters involved in the GOP's organizing of a party-run caucus in early February, set to take place just days after the state's presidential primaries. The Republican Party in Nevada has come under intense scrutiny for confusing voters with the dueling elections and for adopting rules that many say favor Trump over other Republican candidates.
The Nevada GOP did not respond to a request for comment on whether the indictment will affect its members' ability to organize the caucus.
Nevada Republican Chairman Michael McDonald, one of the accused fake voters, has said the state party is bypassing the primaries because the Democratic-controlled Legislature failed to consider the Republican governor's proposals for a voter ID requirement and other measures .
On Sunday, several fake voters in Nevada attended a Trump rally in Reno, where the former president personally thanked three of them, including Hindle and McDonald, while saying they were being treated unfairly. He made no mention of the specific allegations.
McDonald introduced Trump at the rally, encouraging the crowd to root for and vote for Trump at the party-hosted caucus. He ended the speech with the same promise he made at a rally in October, before his indictment.
“If you give us a fair election, I will give you the next president of the United States – Donald J. Trump,” he said.
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Associated Press writers Jonathan J. Cooper in Phoenix, Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin, Joey Cappelletti in Lansing, Michigan, and Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, contributed to this report.
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Stern is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a program that places journalists in local newsrooms. Follow Stern on X, formerly Twitter: @gabestern326.