The Nevada Supreme Court has cleared the way for the legal proceedings against the group of “fake electors” accused of falsely certifying that Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential election to continue in Clark County. This comes after a ruling by a district court that had previously dismissed the case, deeming Clark County as an inappropriate venue. In their 12-page order released on Thursday, the justices stated that the district court erred in its decision, thus allowing the case to be pursued further.

To recount, it has been nearly five years since Joe Biden was declared the winner of the 2020 presidential election, with key states, including Nevada, playing a crucial role in his victory. Despite this, a number of so-called fake electors in various states attempted to contravene the official results by certifying Trump as the winner.

In Nevada, six individuals, among them Nevada Republican Party Chairman Michael McDonald, were implicated in sending “false electoral vote certificates” from Douglas County to a federal courthouse in Clark County. These actions led to their indictment on charges related to the uttering or offering of forged instruments and offering a false or forged instrument to be filed in a public office.

The accused have all entered not guilty pleas, seeking to have the indictment dismissed. Their defense argues that any criminal act was concluded upon mailing and that no actionable offering occurred in Clark County since the documents, once arriving there, were transferred unopened to Reno in Washoe County.

All six of them pleaded not guilty, and they moved to dismiss the indictment against them, arguing that any alleged offense “was complete on mailing and that no uttering or offering took place in Clark County” because the documents, after arriving in Clark County, were transferred unopened to Reno in Washoe County.

The district judge sided with the six defendants, and the state appealed, ultimately landing the case in front of the Nevada Supreme Court.

Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford and his office have argued that the alleged transgressions undertaken by the “fake electors” were not complete upon mailing because “at that point, the documents had not been delivered to a recipient or presented for acceptance.” Furthermore, to the prosecutors, although the mail was rerouted, because it first arrived in Clark County, the site is the proper venue for the case.

The state’s high court found credence in this argument.

“We agree with the State that Clark County was a proper venue because the offenses involved false statements directed to Judge [Miranda] Du at the federal court in Las Vegas,” the justices wrote. “Respondents directed the documents to be sent to the federal court in order to perpetrate a fraud there.”

They concluded by writing, at length:

“The district court erred in concluding that the offenses were complete upon depositing the documents for mailing in Douglas County and thus in concluding that Clark County was an improper venue. The offenses charged anticipated the documents’ receipt and sought to induce or persuade a recipient to take action by accepting them as true. As they were addressed to and delivered at the federal court in Las Vegas, venue properly laid in Clark County to prosecute the crimes alleged. We reverse the order dismissing the criminal indictment and remand to the district court.

Clark County went for Biden in 2020, while Trump swept Douglas County that year; in the end, Nevada’s electoral votes went to Biden. Ford celebrated the news, saying in a statement, “The 2020 fake electors cannot evade accountability in Nevada for their unlawful actions,” per The Nevada Independent. “With this ruling, we will return to the Eighth Judicial District Court in Clark County and continue our work to ensure that justice is served.”

It is also a victory for those in swing states who have sought to prosecute the people they allege tried to unconstitutionally overturn the will of the voters at the ballot boxes.

Such efforts have failed in other states. In Michigan, the case against 15 “fake electors” was thrown out after a district judge there ruled that they “seriously believed” there were problems with the election. In Arizona, the case against 18 defendants hit a road block when a judge found that the grand jury that issued the indictment had not been given the requisite information on how electoral votes should be counted.