Photo provided to the Times Observer Ash Khare, pictured here at President Donald Trump’s inauguration, appears to have signed on to be a fake Electoral College elector as part of a broader effort by the Trump campaign to overturn the 2020 election.

One of Warren County’s state GOP committee members appears to have signed on as a fake Electoral College elector as part of an attempt to overthrow the 2020 presidential election.

Ash Khare, longtime county Republican activist, 2016 Electoral College elector and member of the state committee, is listed on a fake certificate put together after Election Day in 2020 and Jan. 6, 2021, when the votes were certified in Congress.

A Freedom of Information Act request by American Oversight, a self-styled non-partisan watchdog, to the National Archives revealed the certificates back in March.

Illegitimate certificates aimed at putting forth Trump electors in states where the former president lost the election were provided for Pennsylvania, Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada and Wisconsin, the group says.

The effort to put forward fake electors was highlighted last week in a hearing held by the House Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6 Attack on the United States Capitol.

“They assembled groups of individuals in key battleground states and got them to call themselves electors,” Rep. Adam Schiff said, and “created phony certificates.”

He was critical of former President Donald Trump’s attempt to pressure states to, among other things, “send two slates of electors to Congress … and pressure Vice President Pence to choose him as the winner.”

The Pennsylvania certificate, which includes signatures from GOP gubernatorial hopefuls Charlie Gerow and Lou Barletta along with Khare, said that the signatories met in Harrisburg on Dec. 14 and voted. Unsurprisingly, those votes went to Trump and Pence, who lost Pennsylvania by about 80,000 votes.

Khare declined comment on the issue, both to a general question on his appearance on the list as well as whether his signature on the certificate was genuine.

Schiff stated in last week’s hearing that the electors were told that the certificates would only be used if Trump won his legal challenges. Pennsylvania’s version acknowledges that the electors were acting “on the understanding that, if as a result of a final non-appealable court order … we are ultimately recognized as being the duly elected and qualified Electors….”

Evidence presented before the Committee last week stated the certificates were sent to the National Archives and Vice Mike Pence.

“None of this worked,” Schiff said, citing a legal opinion that some involved in this scheme violated federal laws including conspiracy to defraud the United States.

“The system held, but barely,” he said.