ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Commissioners in a New Mexico county have certified the results from their primary election after spurring a standoff over election integrity that was fueled by conspiracy theories about the security of voting equipment.
Otero County commissioners opted 2-1 to certify the results during an emergency meeting as New Mexico counties faced a deadline Friday for certification of the vote. The two who voted to certify said they had no choice under state law and could be only a rubber stamp.
The commissioners also acknowledged an order by the state Supreme Court and subsequent threats of legal action by the Democratic state attorney general.
While there has been no evidence of fraud, the actions by the commission in rural Otero County had threatened to disenfranchise more than 7,300 voters in the politically conservative area of southern New Mexico.
The commissioners earlier had refused to certify the results, prompting the state’s top election official to seek court intervention.
New Mexico’s primary ballot included races at all levels – including Congress, governor, attorney general and a long list of local offices. Those races would not have been official until all counties are certified.
“We note that the commission admitted that they did not have any facts to support not certifying the election results,” said New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver after the vote. “It’s unfortunate that we had to take action to make sure Otero County voters were not disenfranchised.”
In politically conservative Torrance County, angry residents greeted their three commissioners with screams and vitriol as they met to consider certification. As the visibly frustrated Torrance County commissioners indicated they were going to vote to certify their election, the audience shouted “Shame on you,” “cowards and traitors,” and “Who elected you?”
Otero County, N.M., Commissioner Couy Griffin stands outside federal court in March 2022. Gemunu Amarasinghe/Associated Press
The commissioners pleaded with the audience for patience and said concerns about alleged election vulnerabilities eventually would be addressed.
“The time and place to fight this battle is not by canvassing this election,” Chairman Ryan Schwebach told the crowd.
Certifying elections by typically under-the-radar local commissions has been a routine ministerial task for decades that has become politicized ever since former President Donald Trump sought to undermine the process following his loss to Joe Biden in the 2020 election.
Otero County, a rural, heavily Republican county, thrust the issue into the spotlight this week when its commission said it would not certify the local results from the June 7 primary because of concerns over Dominion voting systems, even though there was no evidence of problems.
The controversy that began in Otero County boiled over on Friday as commissions in the last of the state’s 33 counties were meeting to decide whether to certify results.
The passionate showdown provided a stark example of the chaos that election experts have warned about as those who promote the lie that Trump was cheated out of reelection seek to populate election offices across the country and the usually low-profile boards that certify the results.
The New Mexico Supreme Court earlier this week ordered Otero County to sign off on the election results after the Democratic secretary of state asked it to intervene. The state attorney general, also a Democrat, then threatened more legal action if the Republican-dominated commission did not comply with the law.
That could have included charging commissioners with possible violations of state election and government ethics laws, which can be felonies if the action is willful and result in removal from office.
At least one of the three Otero County commissioners was unfazed. Commissioner Couy Griffin told CNN that he was not planning to vote for certification.
“Why have a commission if we just get overridden by the court system?” he said.
Friday’s certification resistance in New Mexico can be traced to far-right conspiracy theories over voting machines that have spread across the country over the past two years. Various Trump allies have claimed that Dominion voting systems had somehow been manipulated as part of an elaborate scheme to steal the election, which Biden won.
There is no evidence of widespread fraud or manipulation of voting equipment that could have affected the outcome of the 2020 election.
Dominion has filed several defamation lawsuits, including against Fox News, and in a statement earlier this week said the action by the Otero County commissioners was “yet another example of how lies about Dominion have damaged our company and diminished the public’s faith in elections.”
Election officials outside New Mexico are taking notice. The secretary of state’s office said Friday it has been flooded with calls from officials concerned that certification controversies will become a new front in the attacks on democratic norms and could affect future elections, especially in 2024.
Otero County Clerk Robyn Holmes, a Republican in her fourth term as the county’s lead elections administrator, told The Associated Press that the June 7 election was conducted without problems. Machine tallies at 16 voting centers each matched the number of ballots that were handed out.
“The primary went off without a hitch,” she said. “It was a great election.”
Griffin, the certification holdout on the Otero County commission, is scheduled Friday to be sentenced in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., after being convicted of entering restricted U.S. Capitol grounds – though not the building – during the Jan. 6 insurrection.
State election officials advised the sentencing judge of Griffin’s refusal to certify primary election results in New Mexico.
Associated Press writers Christina Almeida Cassidy in Atlanta, Scott Sonner in Reno, Nevada, and Terry Tang in Phoenix contributed to this report.
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