Former Alaska Rep. Gabrielle LeDoux’s long-delayed election misconduct trial started in Anchorage in Nov. 18 and lasted seven days. The closing arguments were held Nov. 27, and the jury has had the long Thanksgiving weekend to deliberate. As of this writing, the date has yet been published for when the jury will be asked for its verdict in an election fraud case that was brought by the State of Alaska in 2020 and which has been delayed several times, but it is expected to be early this week.
LeDoux was accused by state prosecutors in 2020 of encouraging people who did not live in her district to vote for her in the 2018 primary and general elections.
On June 2, 2021, an Anchorage grand jury, after hearing the evidence, indicted LeDoux, Lisa (Vaught) Simpson, and Caden Vaught on multiple counts of voter misconduct in the first degree, charges stemming from an investigation that started in 2018 after the Division of Elections identified irregularities in absentee ballot applications and absentee ballots returned for the primary election for what was then House District 15. The Alaska State Troopers, in conjunction with the Federal Bureau of Investigations, were involved in the two-year investigation.
During the long-delayed trial in November, LeDoux had to answer to 12 charges, including five felonies — she pleaded not guilty to all, and shifted the blame to her then-legislative aide, whom she described as the one who broke the law and misunderstood LeDoux’s directions.
LeDoux is an attorney who is still licensed to practice law in Alaska and who has not been disbarred. While running for reelection for East Anchorage, she allegedly told her aide Lisa Simpson to register her adult son in the district so he could vote.
The verdict is expected this week, as the jury was given instructions by Superior Court Judge Kevin Saxby on Thanksgiving Eve.
