Former Alaska Rep. LeDoux’s election misconduct trial set to focus on 2 associates

Former Alaska Rep. Gabrielle LeDoux’s election misconduct case appears set to focus on two of her associates who have pleaded guilty and are slated to testify in the long-awaited trial.

State prosecutors charged LeDoux in 2020 following accusations that she encouraged people who didn’t live in her district to vote for her in the 2014 and 2018 primary and general elections. The charges followed a two-year state investigation that also involved the FBI.

LeDoux faces 12 charges, including five felonies. She has pleaded not guilty.

The long-delayed trial started Monday.

Jury selection for LeDoux’s trial took place through Tuesday. Opening statements were held Wednesday morning.

State prosecutors and LeDoux’s attorney, Kevin Fitzgerald, focused their opening statements on allegations of voter misconduct at the 2018 election involving two of LeDoux’s associates.

LeDoux’s former chief of staff and campaign manager, Lisa (Vaught) Simpson, was charged in 2020 along with her son, Caden Vaught. Both have pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor charge of voter misconduct. Both are set to testify against LeDoux, prosecutors said.

In her opening statements, Assistant Attorney General Sarah Grieb said evidence would show LeDoux encouraged Vaught and Simpson to vote for her, despite knowing that neither of them lived in her district.

“They each have pled guilty to a crime related to their conduct, and both will take the stand to talk about what they did,” she said.

Simpson testified briefly Wednesday. She is set to continue her testimony Thursday morning. Simpson described putting an offer on a house in LeDoux’s district in June of 2018, and discussing that with LeDoux.

”She said, ‘You need to register to vote there.’ I said, ‘Well, we can’t, because we haven’t even, you know — they haven’t accepted our offer yet,’ ” Simpson said.

LeDoux, a Republican, represented Kodiak in the state House for two terms, starting in 2004. She moved to East Anchorage, and served four terms in the Legislature from 2012. She lost her reelection bid in the 2020 Republican primary.

Grieb said that LeDoux was in a “very tight race” in the 2018 election cycle, and she knew that every vote was going to count.

“So she started rustling up some votes,” Grieb said.

LeDoux was a longtime registrar trained by the Alaska Division of Elections as an informal election official. LeDoux asked Simpson “repeatedly” to register in her district, Grieb said, and LeDoux signed Simpson’s voter registration form.

“It is a crime to lie on your voter registration. It is a crime to aid and abet someone who lies on one of these forms. It is a crime to solicit someone to lie on these forms,” she said.

Jurors will be asked to affirm that every vote in Alaska is cast lawfully and in compliance with the rules, she said.

“At the end of this trial, we will ask you to hold Gabrielle LeDoux accountable, and we will ask you to find her guilty on all counts,” Grieb said.

LeDoux, a 76-year-old former attorney, occasionally took notes during the prosecutor’s opening statements. Her attorney’s license is listed as inactive in Alaska and California.

In his hourlong opening statement, Fitzgerald said an election registrar is not required to check a voter’s address. He also cast doubt on Simpson and Vaught’s testimony.

Fitzgerald said that Simpson and Vaught would testify that they both listed their addresses in LeDoux’s district, but not necessarily to vote for her. He said Simpson wanted to move closer to her children. Vaught planned to live in the district after leaving a military academy, he said.

”Completely independent motivations and reasons completely apart from being a constituent or wanting to be a constituent,” he said.

He said there was a suggestion that Simpson was “a wallflower” and LeDoux’s “puppet.” But evidence would show that Simpson was “a strong, independent woman” who herself ran for state House multiple times, he said.

“Ms. LeDoux, ladies and gentlemen, is not guilty of any of the 12 charges that have been brought against her. Not a single one,” he said.

LeDoux’s election misconduct trial is expected to last between one and two weeks. If convicted, the five felony charges against her are each punishable by up to five years in prison and a $50,000 fine.