The long and drawn out election fraud case of former Rep. Gabrielle LeDoux was punctuated by yet another court date on Feb. 13, at which the trial call was set for April 11.
LeDoux is accused of committing voter misconduct and unlawful interference with voting in a case that goes back to at least 2018.
LeDoux, an Anchorage Republican who represented the former District 15 (JBER-Muldoon, now District 18), along with her aide Lisa Vaught Simpson and Caden Vaught, all face various charges relating to LeDoux’s 2018 House race. Simpson had been LeDoux’s chief of staff in the Legislature and sometimes was her roommate in Juneau. Caden Vaught is Lisa’s grown son.
The charges began with an investigation started in 2018 after the Division of Elections identified irregularities in some of the absentee ballot applications and absentee ballots returned for the primary election. Essentially, the three were supposedly getting people who didn’t live in the district to vote in the district. LeDoux may have also falsified ballots by voting for people who were no longer in the district.
LeDoux and the others are accused of “knowingly solicited or encouraged, directly or indirectly, a registered voter who is no longer qualified to vote.” The allegations are class C felonies, which carry up to five years in prison.
Some of those irregularities included 17 people having voted from the same address — a tiny Muldoon trailer, and several votes cast by people who were, apparently, dead.
And then there was the death of Charlie Chang, a Hmong-American hired by LeDoux to help turn out the vote in the Hmong community in the district. Chang left the state after the election, and died shortly after LeDoux visited him in California; she said he died of stress.
In the end, the Division of Elections said that 26 irregular absentee ballots were cast for LeDoux, who ended up winning against Republican challenger Aaron Weaver by 87 votes in 2018.
The original charges included similar actions she also took during the 2014 election, but those charges were dropped due to the statute of limitations having run out on them.
The case has had numerous hearings and cancelled hearings, and there’s no guarantee that this coming April’s scheduled trial call will result in a trial. A trial call is the court event when the judge asks both prosecutor and defendant’s lawyers if they are ready to go to trial. After that, typically a date is set for jury selection.
LeDoux has pleaded not guilty and called the charges “fake news.” She ran hard in 2020, but lost in the primary against Republican David Nelson. The district lines have since been redrawn and much of that district is now owned by Democrats, with Rep. Cliff Groh representing a large portion of it, now known as District 18.
Justice has not been swift. In March 2020, LeDoux and the others were charged. A grand jury indicted them in 2021. There have beenfive “trial setting conferences,” before Tuesday’s conference, and two previous trial calls — and no trial since the offenses originally took place in 2018.
Isn’t this from Murkowski’s play book: Win at any cost no matter what?
Yep. And she’s a Republican, just like Murky!
W/ friends like this, the GOP doesn’t need enemies.
You spelled Trump wrong.
You spelt spelled wrong too……. ?
I hope she is found guilty. These snobby politicians need to be brought back to the real world. When will the voters realize that all the politicians are out to get power and money at anybody’s expense except theirs. They are all a bunch of lying power driven losers.
Republicans who attempt election fraud are complete idiots. They need lessons from the experts: Democrats and union bosses.
Didn’t she then go to Juneau & vote w/ the Dems?
Like most of our alleged Republicans.
I’m no LeDoux fan but every citizen deserves the presumption of innocence until proven to be guilty.
This may be true. However, I’d like to see her doing hard time in the slammer. She and Lisa Vaught deserve this along with high financial penalties.
She is service minded. She took the hot potato, the pot thingy people wanted, and put a credible puzzle together. Some are still in that biz. It was not her first choice but “the people wanted it”. The dems are passionate about get out the vote procuring. DO you need a ride, a bus ride? For that one voting day the disabled are willing to be dislodged at the incessant badgering of the democrats. She is of the era of going, doing, being in service to the people. Making a contribution; a difference. The dems in ak want her down.
She did have union backing, evidenced by the large group of sign wavers at Muldoon & Debarr, while I was sign waving for the Republican across the street. Friendly group who offered me coffee while I waited to cross the street.
Glad to hear this didn’t just get swept under the rug and forgotten about after all these years.
“ There is no evidence of any election fraud “. This is because our present system is so flawless. We can be sure this never gets a trial.
What do you mean? It’s clearly going to trial on April 11, 2023. That is literally the title of the article.
False flag. Registered republican, but her actions show her clearly as a democrat. Again, numerous evidence that republicans never cheat as they have morals where democrats cheat every chance they get. Trump 2024 and beyond.
Am I the only one that thinks any type of election fraud/tampering/shenanigans should be a felony? How about a felony per ballot messed with? Until we get serious about these actions they will just roll on and on.
Looks like the clock is gonna get run out again.
Correct Paul In The Valley-until we get more serious -we will continue this -already the legislators have broken laws and statutes this year. They all took an oath of office -time to serve up some oath keeping sandwiches-imho
Pablo-did you read the article or just the title? If you think that’s the final date I have a bridge I’ll sell you cheap. Just the first two paragraphs should give you a huge hint.
I read every word of it and saw nothing that leads me to believe that this trial is not scheduled to begin April 13, 2023.
Perhaps you could point me to where it says otherwise?
Just because the case has taken this long does not mean that it wont go to trial. Many cases take years to prosecute as finding and investigating evidence takes time. That this case is proceeding to trial is a sign that the DA/prosecuting attorney thinks they have enough evidence to convict
Only way I see this not going to trial is if Ledoux and her alleged co-conspirators take a plea deal
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