The Alaska Department of Law, after a two-year investigation, leveled charges against Anchorage’s Republican legislator. Representative Gabrielle LeDoux and two of her associates accusing them on Friday of election fraud in 2014 as well as 2018.

It was on August 16th, 2018 that the Division of Elections notified Alaska State Troopers that they had come across irregularities in absentee applications for the Republican primary elections in House District 15 that were to take place within five days. AST investigators began working with the Division of Elections and applicants were contacted by phone and in person. That investigation would result in 25 search warrants being issued between that starting date and November 30th of that year. Then, at the end of that initial investigation, the FBI was brought in and joined in the investigation.

Search warrants were requested and granted and the investigation would uncover text messages from Ledoux soliciting individuals to vote in her district, knowing that they did not reside there and could not legally submit absentee applications or vote there. As a result, the charges filed on Friday implicate LeDoux, Lisa Simpson, who has served as LeDoux’s Chief of Staff, and other various positions in LeDoux’s campaigns, and Simpson’s adult son, Caden Vaught, in five felonies and 13 misdemeanors.

According to the charging documents, LeDoux had also pressed Simpson’s husband to file an absentee ballot in District 15, but he declined to do so and does not face any charges.

On Friday, LeDoux issued a statement, saying, “Earlier today, I learned of the charges from the Department of Law. Because this is a pending legal matter, I cannot comment about the details other than to state that I am innocent of all charges and look forward to clearing my name in a court of law.”

“I commend the Division of Elections on its speedy identification of issues in 2018 and the work of all the law enforcement agencies—federal and state—that reviewed countless documents to bring us the evidence needed to file these charges,” said Attorney General Clarkson. “I know these charges won’t answer all the questions that have been floating around since the House District issues first arose. Right now we are focused on the criminal charges we feel we can ethically file based on the evidence. Once the criminal process has played out, we can share more information about the investigation and what it revealed. For now, I want to focus on the good work by all involved in the investigation and assure the public that this illustrates how the process is supposed to work. The integrity of elections is of the utmost importance, and these charges show how seriously we take any actions that seek to compromise elections.”

The Alaska Department of Law also issued a press release on Friday, that can be seen here.

LeDoux, Simpson, and Vaught are due to be arraigned on the charges on April 3rd.

LeDoux is seeking re-election in District 15 this year.

  Alaska, caden vaught, criminal, election, gabrielle, law, ledoux, legislature, lisa simpson, representative