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Former Alaska Rep. Gabrielle LeDoux’s long-delayed election misconduct trial started in Anchorage on Monday.
She was accused by state prosecutors in 2020 of encouraging people who did not live in her district to vote for her in the 2014 and 2018 primary and general elections. Her election fraud charges followed a two-year state investigation that also involved the FBI.
LeDoux, 76, faces 12 charges, including five felonies. She has pleaded not guilty.
LeDoux is a former Kodiak Island Borough mayor. She represented Kodiak for two terms in the Legislature, starting in 2004. She later relocated to East Anchorage, and was elected again in 2012, serving four consecutive terms in the state House. She served in Republican majorities and in a largely Democratic bipartisan majority.
Jury selection in the former legislator’s trial was scheduled to take place Monday and Tuesday. Opening statements from prosecutors and LeDoux’s attorney, Kevin Fitzgerald, are scheduled to start Wednesday morning.
Two of LeDoux’s associates have each pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor charge of voter misconduct. Lisa (Vaught) Simpson, a former campaign aide, and Simpson’s son Caden Vaught both agreed to testify against her.
State prosecutors have accused LeDoux of helping Simpson and Vaught vote for her in 2018 despite evidence presented that neither of them lived in her district.
Jenna Gruenstein, head of the Alaska Office of Special Prosecutions, declined to comment Tuesday on the ongoing trial. Fitzgerald declined to comment in detail on Friday, saying that he doesn’t try cases in the media.
LeDoux’s trial has been repeatedly delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and procedural motions filed by state prosecutors and LeDoux’s attorney. Fitzgerald requested a delay in July due to an undisclosed “personal reason.”
Anchorage Superior Court Judge Kevin Saxby ordered for the election misconduct trial to start Nov. 18. It is expected to take between one and two weeks.