A state Superior Court judge signed a scheduling order on June 7 that will put former Anchorage Rep. Gabrielle LeDoux on trial later this summer for voter misconduct. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for July 12.
The trial is expected to last 10 days; a start date has not yet been set.
“I’m looking forward to it because it’s been a long time, and I’m looking forward to the opportunity to clear my name,” LeDoux said last week.
State prosecutors have accused LeDoux and two others of encouraging illegal votes in the 2014 and 2018 state legislative elections.
Those others are LeDoux’s former chief of staff, Lisa (Vaught) Simpson, and Simpson’s son, Caden Vaught. Both are also scheduled for trial in August. Simpson is running for a state House seat in northeast Anchorage.
Prosecutors filed initial charges in 2020, two years after election officials became suspicious of voting patterns in LeDoux’s House district.
“Multiple text messages were found that showed that LeDoux requested at least two people to vote in her district — despite their having told LeDoux that they no longer lived in the district,” charging documents stated.
LeDoux has denied the charges.
The courts postponed trials during the COVID-19 pandemic. Trials resumed earlier this year.
LeDoux faces five charges of felony voter misconduct, each punishable by fines and up to two years in prison. She also faces seven misdemeanor charges of second-degree unlawful interference with voting.
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