After closing statements, former Alaska Rep. LeDoux’s election misconduct case now in jury’s hands

Twelve jurors are set to decide whether former state Rep. Gabrielle LeDoux is guilty of election misconduct after her long-awaited trial concluded Wednesday.

LeDoux 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. The charges filed against LeDoux came after a two-year state investigation.

The former Anchorage Republican legislator faces 12 charges, including five felonies. LeDoux has pleaded not guilty.

The nine-day trial centered on two of LeDoux’s associates who pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor charge each of voter misconduct: Lisa (Vaught) Simpson, a former campaign aide, and Simpson’s son Caden Vaught. Both testified against her.

Jenna Gruenstein, head of the Alaska Office of Special Prosecutions, said in closing statements that LeDoux was facing a tough reelection battle in 2018, and knew every vote would be critical.

LeDoux “repeatedly” pressured Simpson and Vaught to register in her East Anchorage district, despite knowing that neither of them lived there, Gruenstein said.

State prosecutors cited multiple text messages sent by LeDoux to her associates as evidence of her wrongdoing.

“She didn’t care about the rules. She just wanted the votes,” Gruenstein said.

LeDoux, a 76-year-old former attorney, took the stand on Wednesday. Under cross-examination, she said it was her “modus operandi” to encourage people to vote for her. But she disputed assertions that she knew Simpson and Vaught were not residents of her district.

LeDoux was a longtime registrar trained by the Alaska Division of Elections as an informal election official. She signed Simpson’s voter registration form, but she said that did not mean she needed to verify Simpson’s address.

“The only thing that I was supposed to be doing was making sure that she filled it out completely,” LeDoux said.

LeDoux 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.

In his closing statements, Kevin Fitzgerald, LeDoux’s defense attorney, said state prosecutors needed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that LeDoux had a “specific intent” to improperly solicit votes.

Simpson had testified she was moving to LeDoux’s district to live closer to her children; Vaught listed an address there after leaving a military academy, Fitzgerald said. Voting for LeDoux was simply “a byproduct” of claiming residency in LeDoux’s district, he said.

Gruenstein and Fitzgerald argued forcefully about state residency laws related to voter registration. Fitzgerald said that intent to live in a district was effectively sufficient to establish residency; Gruenstein said a voter needed to actually move there.

After the jury left the courtroom, the dispute led to accusations between Gruenstein and Fitzgerald of misstatements of state residency statutes and bad-faith objections during closing statements. Judge Kevin Saxby said there had been “vigorous representation on both sides.”

The trial concluded shortly after 4:30 p.m. Wednesday. Saxby said attorneys and LeDoux would need to be available from Friday at 8:30 a.m. — in case the jury was ready to issue its verdict.

In Alaska, 12 jurors hear felony trials in state Superior Court. The jury must come to a unanimous decision to reach a guilty verdict on each charge. If she is convicted, the five felonies filed against LeDoux are each punishable by up to five years in prison and a $50,000 fine.