By Alexandra Ulmer
(Reuters) – New Mexico’s secretary of state is suing Otero County after its Republican-led commission refused to certify June’s primary election results, citing conspiracy theories about voting machines.
The three-person commission in Otero County, in southern New Mexico, on Monday voted against certifying the results of the June 7 primary election for races including governor, congress and attorney general despite the county clerk’s assurances that the vote was sound.
“We have a big issue with trust right now,” commissioner Couy Griffin, a founder of Cowboys for Trump, said during the meeting in which he speculated that Dominion Voting Systems Corp’s machines could be hacked or manipulated.
Former President Donald Trump has continued to propagate falsehoods that President Joe Biden stole the 2020 election. Many Republicans believe him even after revelations a congressional hearing this month that Trump’s own daughter and other close allies rejected them.
Otero’s decision comes ahead of the November midterm elections that will decide control of the U.S. Congress, now narrowly held by Democrats, and the 2024 presidential election, in which Trump has indicated he could seek a second White House term.
New Mexico’s Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver on Tuesday sued the commission in the Supreme Court of the State of New Mexico, stating they were acting “illegally” and “appeasing unfounded conspiracy theories.”
Toulouse Oliver, a Democrat, said the commissioners had not offered any evidence of issues with the vote tabulators or election returns.
Reuters was not immediately able to contact the commissioners for comment. Griffin was found guilty by a judge in March of breaching the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021 riot. He has yet to be sentenced.
Toulouse Oliver warned other counties may follow suit in refusing to certify results.
U.S. Representative Adam Kinzinger, one of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach then-President Trump on a charge of inciting the deadly Jan. 6 attack, said Otero’s vote was a harbinger of more election turmoil ahead.
“Wake up America and GOP, this will destroy us,” Kinzinger tweeted on Wednesday.
“This is now the plan for MAGA, place people in low levels who can refuse to do their basic duty,” he added, referring to Trump’s Make America Great Again slogan.
(Reporting by Alexandra Ulmer; Editing by David Gregorio)
