Electors in 7 States Cast Dueling Votes for Trump

Electors from the GOP are denied entry to the Michigan Capitol as the Electors from the Democratic Party cast their ballot in Lansing, Mich., on Dec. 14, 2020. Jeff Kowalsky/AFP via Getty Images

Republican electors in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Nevada, and New Mexico cast alternative slates of votes for President Donald Trump on Dec. 14, as the certified Democrat electors in the same states cast votes for former Vice President Joe Biden.

While there’s precedent for dueling sets of electors casting votes in a presidential election, the number of states involved in the action sent the 2020 election into uncharted territory. Democrats successfully executed the same gambit in Hawaii in 1960 by casting an alternative set of votes for John F. Kennedy after the state’s governor certified the electors for Richard Nixon.