The Daily Fuckup

By Aug. 6, 2021, the key point was not that alternate-elector paperwork was newly created. It had already been signed in December 2020. What changed by August was the public view of it: the National Archives and related records showed unofficial certificates and other documents from battleground states that were part of an effort to put forward competing slates after Joe Biden had won the election and the states had moved through their normal certification steps. ([archives.gov](https://www.archives.gov/electoral-college/2020))

That paper trail matters because the Electoral College process is built on specific documents and deadlines. States appoint electors by certificate of ascertainment, electors then meet and vote, and Congress later counts those votes in joint session. The National Archives says the Office of the Federal Register coordinates parts of that process between the states and Congress, but has no role in appointing electors. Congress.gov’s CRS report says the joint session is where the votes are verified and counted, and that objections are handled under federal procedure, not by unilateral action from the presiding officer. ([archives.gov](https://www.archives.gov/electoral-college/roles))

The unofficial certificates themselves were not a mystery by August 2021. The National Archives had posted a page collecting records submitted to the Office of the Federal Register, including unofficial certificates from Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, along with related documents such as the Michigan and Wisconsin false certificates. Those records showed that the alternate-elector effort was organized enough to generate formal-looking papers and send them into the federal system, even though the official 2020 Electoral College results recorded 306 votes for Biden and 232 for Trump. ([archives.gov](https://www.archives.gov/foia/2020-presidential-election-unofficial-certificates))

That is the cleanest reading of the record as of Aug. 6, 2021: the story was no longer about whether alternate-elector documents existed. They did. The question was what the people behind them thought they were doing, who coordinated the effort, and how far it was intended to go. The documents had already outlived the talking points, and once they surfaced in the public record, they gave investigators and lawmakers something concrete to compare against emails, calls and other instructions. ([archives.gov](https://www.archives.gov/foia/2020-presidential-election-unofficial-certificates))