The state Supreme Court of New Mexico has ordered the data of the June 7 primary to be certified by a Republican-led county panel.
The commission has declined, citing conspiracy theories concerning Dominion, the corporation at the center of many of Trump’s misleading assertions regarding the 2020 election. Couy Griffin, who co-founded the group Cowboys for Trump and once declared, “The only good Democrat is a dead Democrat,” is a member of the Otero County Commission. For his involvement in the January 6 insurgency, he will be sentenced on Friday. The impasse in New Mexico came as voting rights advocates grew more concerned as supporters of Trump’s attempted coup strive to seize control of additional local election authorities.
New Mexico Election Scandal
Following the June 7 primary election, the Otero County Commission authorized three agenda items that contravene state voting restrictions during its June 9 meeting.
Prior to the Nov. 8 General Election, Commissioners agreed to demand hand counts of all votes cast within Dominion Voting System equipment to validate vote counts, remove all voter drop boxes, and stop utilizing the Dominion Voting Machines.
Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin put all three issues on the agenda. To conduct a manual recount, a district judge must issue an order allowing the ballot boxes to be opened. Dominion has a contract with the New Mexico Secretary of State’s Office to utilize its voting equipment during elections. State law mandates the use of two ballot drop boxes that are monitored by video surveillance. Counties are required to have two.
The proposals were not in the form of an ordinance or resolution, but rather agenda items passed jointly by the commission at the meeting. Alex Curtas, a spokesman for the New Mexico Secretary of State, said the Otero County Commission lacked legal jurisdiction to make these judgments.
