SLEEPY LITTLE NEW MEXICO!

https://www.thedailybeast.com/vigilante-new-mexico-audit-force-posing-as-county-workers-says-state-auditorShow more

Election ‘Vigilante‘ Group Posing as County Workers, Says New Mexico’s State Auditor

One of the group’s leaders gave a speech in a church about the audit in which he said “I want arrests, I want prosecutions, I want firing squads.”

Leaders of a far-right Telegram group pledged that its members would not misrepresent themselves as county employees when they went knocking on doors in Otero County, New Mexico for a “canvas” of local voter rolls. But just weeks later, state officials say members of the group are misrepresenting themselves—and possibly opening the county up to lawsuits.

Otero County is a solidly Republican district, with more than 60 percent of residents voting for Donald Trump in 2020. There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud there, or anywhere else in the U.S. Nevertheless, Otero commissioners have spent nearly $50,000 on an “audit” of their county’s 2020 election by EchoMail, a conspiracy-peddling company that assisted with a chaotic audit in Maricopa County, Arizona. EchoMail, in turn, contracted the “New Mexico Audit Force” or NMAF, a Telegram group that routinely promotes election conspiracy theories, to knock on Otero County doors and ask residents about their votes.

Now state officials say the NMAF is falsely representing its members as county employees during its “canvas” of local households, raising potential civil rights concerns.

Otero County approved its contract with EchoMail in January. The history of the company, founded by conspiracy promoter Shiva Ayyadurai, set off alarm bells among election-watchers, and prompted an investigation by Brian Colón, New Mexico’s state auditor.

The investigation revealed further red flags. “Our investigation appears to have found that commissioners may have put their own personal interest ahead of the public interest,” Colón told The Daily Beast.

On Monday, Colón’s office issued a letter to Otero County’s three commissioners, noting “potential violations” around the audit.

“[T]he County is deficient in their ability to properly oversee the compliance of contractual agreements and further lacks proper oversight policies for contract compliance,” Colón’s office alleges in the letter, which goes on to suggest the audit is little more than political theater.

“Additionally, from our review, it appears the County Commissioners may have abused their power in approving the County’s contract with the vendor for an ‘election audit’ that was not in the best interests of constituents and seemingly purely political grandstanding. The stated purpose and methodology of the ‘audit’ gives the appearance of the entire affair simply being a careless and extravagant waste of public funds, which does not appear to serve any useful purpose to the taxpayers of Otero County.”

The letter followed a rebuke earlier this month by New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver, who called the group’s efforts there a “vigilante audit.” None of Otero’s three county commissioners returned The Daily Beast’s request for comment on the letter or its allegations.

The letter takes particular issue with the NMAF’s efforts to “canvas” local households. The NMAF campaign involves knocking on doors and asking people for information about their household and how they voted. (similar to what Liz Harris did in AZ) The NMAF is not an incorporated organization, but a group on the messaging platform Telegram, where its leaders routinely promote conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.