What is a fake elector? The term of the day, explained

Americans commonly think the popular vote is what elects presidents. Win the vote in a certain number of states and you take over the Oval Office, right?

Well, there's a technicality: one of the processes built into the U.S. Constitution by the nation's founders. It's called the Electoral College.

Each state receives the same number of votes in the Electoral College as the number of representatives it has in Congress. Arizona has nine members of the House of Representatives and two U.S. senators. Hence, it has 11 electoral votes. The District of Columbia has three electors and treated like a state for purposes of the Electoral College, according to the National Archives and Records Administration.

That adds up to 538 electoral votes, meaning a candidate has to pick up 270 to win.

Arizona indictments: Grand jury indicts fake electors who falsely certified Donald Trump as 2020 winner

Who selects the electors?

Each presidential candidate in Arizona has 11 electors on the ballot under the candidate's name. Political parties in the state select their slates of electors from among elected officials, state party leaders or other notable party members.

The winning candidate's electors are appointed as the electors in Arizona, and almost every other state, in a winner-take-all format. Nebraska and Maine have proportional distribution of the electors.

After an election is decided and the results are approved by the state, the slate of electors for the winning candidate gets to do its job. It certifies the election with a document sent to Congress and the National Archives.

In Arizona, then-Gov. Doug Ducey and other state officials certified the election in Arizona on Nov. 30, 2020. President-elect Joe Biden's 0.3 percentage-point margin was easily the closest presidential contest in state history. Then-Secretary of State Katie Hobbs signed the official election results, compiled from the final tallies of Arizona’s 15 counties, alongside Ducey, Attorney General Mark Brnovich and Chief Justice Robert Brutinel.

What did the electors' meetings look like in Arizona in 2020?

The meeting of the electors takes place on the first Tuesday after the second Wednesday in December after the general election, according to the National Archives.

At noon on Dec. 14, 2020, Arizona's Democratic electors certified the election in Arizona was won by Biden. Their votes were recorded on what is called a Certificate of Vote.

But on the same day, a group of prominent Republicans, including the state party's former chair, Kelli Ward, and current state lawmakers Anthony Kern and Jake Hoffman signed a document falsely declaring themselves Arizona's electors, in favor of Trump.

But Trump had lost Arizona. By state statute, the only electors who mattered were those pledged to cast their votes for Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.

Who are Arizona's fake electors?

The Republican slate of electors are the men and women known in Arizona as the fake electors.

Similar actions were taken by Republicans in Michigan, Georgia and Nevada, also known as fake electors.

In what had been a largely ceremonial event in the 20th and 21st centuries, Congress accepts the certificates of vote from each state and certifies the overall winner in a joint session of Congress on Jan. 6 in the year following the election.

On Jan. 6, 2021, that process was disrupted by a riot at the U.S. Capitol. Congress reconvened later that evening and certified the vote, which effectively transferred power to Biden from Trump on Jan. 20, 2021.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: What is a fake elector? The term of the day, explained