New possible punishment for those resisting election result certification

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — There are new developments in the possible punishment for defiant local officials in New Mexico who are pushing back against election results, as a deadline nears for them to comply.

Otero County commissioners are set to again discuss certifying local primary election results in a meeting Friday at 4 p.m., after refusing to approve them thus far.

This comes as a federal judge is set to sentence commissioner and Cowboys for Trump founder Couy Griffin, Friday, after convicting him for trespassing during the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

More state and federal elections officials are claiming that the concerns over voting fraud right now in southern New Mexico stem from the widespread misinformation that led to the Capitol riots.

Those calls led to a federal judge granting a new motion Thursday from federal prosecutors that means Griffin’s involvement in not finalizing voting results in New Mexico could make his punishment for the Capitol riots more severe. A U.S. attorney in D.C. successfully petitioned to have Griffin’s new resistance considered in his sentencing.

“I guess if I had a position, it is just that I am going to hold my ground on this deal,” Griffin told KOB 4 Wednesday.

There’s also a new promise of punishment if Otero County commissioners don’t certify the election results. A spokesperson with the New Mexico Attorney General’s Office said Thursday that commissioners will face “legal action.”

This comes after the New Mexico Secretary of State demanded they certify the results and after the state Supreme Court ordered them to do so.

The deadline for all localities to certify results is Friday.

Otero County commissioners have said they have concerns over voting machines and certain votes in the recent primary. On Thursday, one of them commented on specifics for the first time. Commissioner Vickie Marquardt said in a statement that they feel they haven’t gotten a chance to defend themselves.

She cited two concerns that the state says it can debunk. One is “outdated and uncertified software,” which a Secretary of State’s office spokesperson says is false and is misinformation. Secondly, that there’s evidence votes were cast from “deceased” people and from “addresses” that don’t exist. The state says the commissioners had the opportunity to ask a board to review those claims, but they didn’t do that.