School kids rule: Digital designs are 2020 Olympic mascots

The schoolchildren have had their say: A pair of futuristic digital characters will be the mascots for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics.

Organizers unveiled the winning designs at a school in Tokyo on Wednesday.

Officials and students pose for photographers after the characters which will serve as mascot for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and Paralympics Games are announced, in Tokyo, Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018. The mascots were selected after a vote among school children across Japan. The sign reads " Decision! Mascots for the Tokyo 2020. " (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

Ryo Taniguchi, right, the designer of the characters which will serve as mascots for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and Paralympics Games, receives a 3D models of his designed characters in Tokyo, Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018. The mascots has been selected after a vote among school children across Japan. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

A total of 205,755 classes at 16,769 elementary schools took part in selecting three short-listed designs, with their classes casting a single vote.

The winning pair, clad in the 'ichimatsu" checkered pattern of the Games' official logo, received 109,041 votes.

"The Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games finally have their mascots," said Ryohei Miyata, head of the mascot selection panel. "This means a lot, especially in Japan. I cannot wait to see these two characters coming to life in the stadiums, on the streets and on TV."

Organizers say the mascots combine tradition with innovation.

Official characters which will serve as mascots for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games, is unveiled in Tokyo, Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018. The mascot has been selected after a vote among school children across Japan. The sign on board reads "Decision ! Mascots for the Tokyo 2020." (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

Students of a Tokyo school wait for the results announcement of the characters which will serve as mascots for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and Paralympics Games, in Tokyo, Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018. The mascots have been selected after a vote among school children across Japan. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

Their names will be decided by copywriters and other professionals and announced in July or August.

The selection process involving schoolchildren was introduced to get students enthusiastic about the games while also ensuring transparency.

The original official logo was hit with plagiarism allegations and scrapped.

Students of a Tokyo school wave the fans with candidate characters printed on it as they wait for the characters which will serve as mascot for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and Paralympics Games, are unveiled in Tokyo, Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018. The mascot has been selected after a vote among school children across Japan. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

A pair of characters which will serve as mascots for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and Paralympics are selected in Tokyo, Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018.  (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

The designer of the winning mascots is Ryo Taniguchi, who graduated as an art major from Cabrillo College in California, and is currently active as a character designer/illustrator. His work has been featured by companies and at exhibitions in Japan.

The Tokyo Olympics are scheduled for July 24 to Aug. 9, 2020.

Ryo Taniguchi, the designer of the characters, shown in the background, which will serve as mascots for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and Paralympics Games, is celebrated after his design was selected, in Tokyo, Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018. The mascots has been selected after a vote among school children across Japan. The sign reads " Decision! Mascots for the Tokyo 2020. " (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

Students of a Tokyo school celebrate as the characters which will serve as mascots for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and Paralympics Games, are unveiled in Tokyo, Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018. The mascots have been selected after a vote among school children across Japan. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

Arizona's attorney general says former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani has been served an indictment in the state's fake elector case alongside 17 other defendants for his role in an attempt to overturn former President Donald Trump’s loss to Joe Biden in the 2020 election.

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes posted the news regarding the Trump-aligned lawyer on her X account late Friday.

“The final defendant was served moments ago. @RudyGiuliani nobody is above the law,” Mayes wrote.

The attorney general’s spokesman Richie Taylor said in an email to The Associated Press on Saturday that Giuliani faces the same charges as the other defendants, including conspiracy, fraud and forgery charges.

Giuliani’s political adviser, Ted Goodman, confirmed Giuliani was served Friday night after his 80th birthday celebration as he was walking to the car.

“We look forward to full vindication soon,” Goodman said in a statement Saturday.

The indictment alleges that Giuliani “pressured” Arizona legislators and the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors to change the outcome of Arizona’s election and that he was responsible for encouraging Republican electors in Arizona and six other contested states to vote for Trump.

Taylor said an unredacted copy of the indictment will be released Monday. He said Giuliani is expected to appear in court Tuesday unless he is granted a delay by the court.

Mark Meadows, Trump’s former chief of staff, is among others who have been indicted in the case.

Neither Meadows nor Giuliani were named in the redacted grand jury indictment released earlier because they had not been served with it, but they were readily identifiable based on descriptions in the document. The Arizona attorney general’s office said Wednesday that Meadows had been served and confirmed that he was charged with the same counts as the other named defendants, including conspiracy, fraud and forgery charges.

With the indictments, Arizona becomes the fourth state where allies of the former president have been charged with using false or unproven claims about voter fraud related to the election.

Giuliani faces other legal proceedings, and a bankruptcy judge this past week said he was “disturbed” about the status of the case and for missed deadlines to file financial disclosure reports. Giuliani filed for bankruptcy after being ordered to pay $148 million to two former election workers for spreading a false conspiracy theory about their role in the 2020 election.

Giuliani was also indicted last year by a grand jury in Georgia, where he is accused of spearheading Trump’s efforts to compel state lawmakers in Georgia to ignore the will of voters and illegally appoint pro-Trump electoral college electors.

Among the defendants are 11 Arizona Republicans who submitted a document to Congress falsely declaring that Trump won in Arizona in the 2020 presidential election — including a former state GOP chair, a 2022 U.S. Senate candidate and two sitting state lawmakers. The other defendants are Mike Roman, who was Trump’s director of Election Day operations, and four attorneys accused of organizing an attempt to use fake documents to persuade Congress not to certify Biden’s victory: John Eastman, Christina Bobb, Boris Epshteyn and Jenna Ellis.

Trump himself was not charged but was referred to as an unindicted co-conspirator.

The 11 people who had been nominated to be Arizona’s Republican electors met in Phoenix on Dec. 14, 2020, to sign a certificate saying they were “duly elected and qualified” electors and claiming that Trump carried the state. A one-minute video of the signing ceremony was posted on social media by the Arizona Republican Party at the time. The document was later sent to Congress and the National Archives, where it was ignored.

Biden won Arizona by more than 10,000 votes.

Eastman, who devised a strategy to try to persuade Congress not to certify the election, became the first person charged in Arizona’s fake elector case to be arraigned on Friday. He pleaded not guilty to conspiracy, fraud and forgery charges.

Eastman made a brief statement outside the courthouse, saying the charges against him should have never been filed.

“I had zero communications with the electors in Arizona (and) zero involvement in any of the election litigation in Arizona or legislative hearings. And I am confident that with the laws faithfully applied, I will be fully be exonerated at the end of this process,” Eastman said. He declined to make further comment.

Arraignments are scheduled May 21 for 12 other people charged in the case, including nine of the 11 Republicans who had submitted a document to Congress falsely declaring Trump had won Arizona.

The Arizona indictment said Eastman encouraged the GOP electors to cast their votes in December 2020, unsuccessfully pressured state lawmakers to change the election’s outcome in Arizona and told then-Vice President Mike Pence that he could reject Democratic electors in the counting of electoral votes in Congress on Jan. 6, 2021.

Associated Press writers Jacques Billeaud and Jonathan J. Cooper in Phoenix and Nomaan Merchant in Washington contributed to this report.

FILE - Former Mayor of New York Rudy Giuliani speaks during a news conference outside the federal courthouse in Washington, Dec. 15, 2023. Arizona attorney general Kris Mayes says Giuliani has been served an indictment in the state’s fake elector case alongside 17 other defendants for his role in an attempt to overturn former President Donald Trump’s loss to Joe Biden in the 2020 election. Mayes posted the news regarding the Trump-aligned lawyer on her X account late Friday, May 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)