New Mexico's Supreme Court steps in after GOP-led commission refuses to recognize primary results over bogus voting machine concerns
- New Mexico's top court has ordered a GOP-led commission to certify primary election results.
- The three-person commission in Otero County refused to acknowledge the June 7 results.
New Mexico's Supreme Court has ordered a GOP-led commission to recognize the primary results in the southern Otero County after it refused to do so over baseless voting machine concerns.
According to court documents obtained by local news outlet KOB4, the state's top court ordered the county's commission on Wednesday to approve the results of the 2022 primary election no later than Friday.
The three-person commission in the county last week declined to certify the results of a June 7 primary election, citing bogus issues it had with Dominion vote-tabulating machines used — though it was unable to point to any specific issue.
New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver, a Democrat, sued the commission on Tuesday and asked the Supreme Court to intervene, citing "illegal actions to disenfranchise" the state's voters.
"New Mexico's 2022 Primary Election was conducted with the highest standards of election administration by dedicated county clerks and civil servants across our state," Toulouse Oliver said in a statement.
She added: "The post-election canvassing process is a key component of how we maintain our high levels of election integrity in New Mexico and the Otero County Commission is flaunting that process by appeasing unfounded conspiracy theories and potentially nullifying the votes of every Otero County voter who participated in the Primary."
Toulouse Oliver told CNN on Thursday that she's not sure if the commission will end up certifying the results and said, "we're in completely uncharted territory here."
One commission member, Vickie Marquardt, told the Associated Press on Monday that when "I certify stuff that I don't know is right, I feel like I'm being dishonest because in my heart I don't know if it is right."
Among those in the commission is "Cowboys for Trump" leader Couy Griffin, who was convicted of trespassing during the January 6, 2021, Capitol riots.
The baseless voting machine claims are similar to those made by MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell — who falsely claimed that Dominion's machines rigged the 2020 presidential election — and other GOP figures loyal to former President Donald Trump. The Associated Press reported that Trump won Otero County with 62% of the vote in the 2020 presidential election.
In a statement to Insider's Matthew Loh and Charles Davis, a Dominion spokesperson said the Otero County refusal was "yet another example of how lies" have "diminished the public's faith in elections."