Sept 14 (Reuters) - Republicans who back former President Donald Trump's false claim the 2020 election was stolen have become their party's nominees for secretary of state in battleground states where they can play a decisive role in choosing a U.S. president.
Should they defeat their Democratic opponents in a Nov. 8 vote, these election deniers will be in charge of elections and vote counts in the swing states of Arizona, Michigan and Nevada during the 2024 White House contest.
Democratic President Joe Biden narrowly won all three states in 2020.
Voting rights groups say the election of any of these Republican candidates threatens both the integrity of the next presidential election and U.S. democracy itself. The fear is they could help Trump, if he decides to run again, or another like-minded Republican, overturn election results in 2024.
Here are the Republican secretary of state candidates in the three states.
Finchem is a state legislator, has claimed membership of the far-right militia group the Oath Keepers, and has parroted false conspiracy theories propagated by the QAnon movement, including that leading politicians are part of a pedophile ring.
Finchem supported the "Stop the Steal" movement that falsely claimed the 2020 election was fraudulent and attended Trump's rally in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, that preceded the violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Finchem says he did not travel from Trump's rally to the Capitol that day.
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The prosecution said the videos, published on Instagram, contained unsubstantiated allegations against a faculty member at the law school of an unnamed private university and were considered capab...