Nevada electors cast votes for Trump, Vance in 2024 election

Nevada’s six electors — two of whom were part of a ‘fake electors’ scandal in 2020 — cast their electoral votes for President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance, putting a bow on the 2024 presidential election.

The Electoral College met Tuesday morning at the University of Nevada, Reno to cast electoral votes for president and vice president, based on the popular vote in Nevada.

The six electors — Nevada GOP Chairman Michael McDonald, Clark County GOP Chairman Jesse Law, Bruce Parks, Kathryn Njus, Robert Tyree and Brian Hardy — all cast their votes for Trump and Vance, who won Nevada by more than 45,000 votes.

“Today is a monumental day for Nevada and for the future of our nation,” McDonald said in a statement. “The people of Nevada have spoken loudly and clearly, casting their votes for President Trump and his vision to restore American greatness.”

Gov. Joe Lombardo and Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar signed the Certificate of Ascertainment to certify the electors for president.

The document will be reviewed by the Archivist of the United States and the National Archives and Records Administration before it is formally filed.

As an extra layer of security to the election certification process, Aguilar’s office incorporated blockchain technology, which makes it more difficult to alter or counterfeit the documents. The process involves creating a unique “fingerprint” to the document using a cryptographic hash function that protects the document from tampering, according to Aguilar’s office.

Last time Nevada’s electors went through the Electoral College process, efforts to challenge the results were underway.

In 2020, McDonald and Law held a similar, yet not legitimate meeting with four other Republican electors who signed a fake Certificate of Ascertainment and falsely declared Trump the winner of Nevada, even through Trump lose to Joe Biden by more than 30,000 votes. They held a ceremony outside of the Nevada Legislature in December 2020 while the Democratic electors held their official Electoral College meeting virtually, casting their votes for Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

McDonald and the other Republican electors’ efforts in 2020 led to charges brought forward by Democratic Attorney General Aaron Ford, who charged them with offering a false instrument for filing and uttering forged instruments.

A Clark County judge dismissed the case over a lack of jurisdiction, but Ford appealed the case to the Nevada Supreme Court and filed new charges recently in Carson City.

Law declined to comment on the electors case but said Tuesday’s ceremony was great and he feels like he and the other electors were able to be the voice for people who had been worried in the past.

“It feels like completion for a very long and hard-fought process,” he said.

Contact Jessica Hill at jehill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @jess_hillyeah on X.