This is a story about how a small county in New Mexico has decided to reject the results of the state’s primary elections after being infected by Donald Trump’s false claims of election fraud. The first character in this story is Couy Griffin. In March, Griffin was found guilty of a misdemeanor charge of illegally entering or remaining on restricted grounds by a federal judge — a verdict that followed Griffin’s presence at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Griffin is a fervent supporter of the former president, being one of the founders of the group Cowboys for Trump. He is also an elected member of the three-person county commission in Otero County, N.M. That brings us to the second character in the story, David Clements. Clements gained national attention after being fired from New Mexico State University after refusing to comply with the school’s coronavirus rules and has since made a name for himself as part of the election-fraud circuit. He’s turned up at public hearings around the country sowing doubt about the reliability of voting mechanisms used in the 2020 election. Given those descriptions, it was perhaps inevitable that Clements and Griffin would at some point align. As they did, in February. At a meeting of the Otero County Commission, Clements and his wife, Erin, argued successfully for the county to engage in a review of its election results akin to the one in Maricopa County, Ariz., last year. That the Arizona “audit” failed to find concrete evidence of fraud or questionable practices — and not for lack of looking — did not appear to spur any caution on the part of commissioners. Neither did the fact that Otero County, unlike Maricopa, was won by Donald Trump, with more than 60 percent of the vote.
New Mexico: Intimidation, voting rights measures headed to governor’s desk | Dan McKay/Albuquerque Journal
Legislation making it a crime to intimidate election workers and expanding automatic voter registration is on its way to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham after winning House approval Monday. The proposals — contained in separate bills — emerged this year as priorities for Democratic legislative leaders. Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver said the measures would increase protection for people on the front lines carrying out elections and make it easier for New Mexicans to vote. “As federal voting bills are stymied in Congress and voting rights come under attack across the nation, states like New Mexico must step up to protect these rights,” said Toulouse Oliver, a Democrat. The automatic voter registration proposal, House Bill 4, includes provisions to establish a Native American Voting Rights Act, outlining requirements for secure ballot drop boxes and restores felons’ rights to vote when they leave incarceration, rather than after the completion of probation or parole.
Full Article: Intimidation, voting rights measures headed to governor’s desk in New Mexico – Albuquerque Journal