COUNTY ELECTION OFFICIALS UNDER ASKIN’S WATCH HAVE BEEN INCREASINGLY CONFRONTATIONAL AS FOUR GOP POLL CHALLENGERS BOOTED FROM BALLOT CERTIFICATION WAREHOUSE
ALBUQUERQUE, OCTOBER 30 — The state has made it quite clear that party-appointed challengers have the right to monitor ballot certification as it happens. Today, four Republican poll challengers, rightfully doing their job, were kicked out of a warehouse where absentee ballots were being certified.
County Clerk Amanda Lopez Askin has lost control of the election process in Dona Ana County. County officials claim that an assault occurred at the warehouse site where absentee votes are certified, but the surveillance video taken by the county clearly shows this did not occur.
Askin then allowed her Deputy County Clerk to make false statements about the incident to the media stating that GOP challengers were removed for unruly behavior. Askins’ actions are shameful and irresponsible, and she should be called out for allowing her office to run directly to the media before having all the facts and politicizing a situation in which they are at fault. In addition, two of the four poll challengers were not involved and should never have been kicked out.
Askin’s leadership and abilities as a County Clerk must be questioned. It seems she is deliberately causing trouble, allowing the illegal removal of poll challengers who, by law, are entitled to be a part of the certification process, and sensationalizing the false incidents when going to the press.
Askin’s deceitful behavior and lack of professionalism put a blemish on New Mexico’s election system.
It was Askin who in 2018 suddenly found approximately 8,500 absentee ballots after voting had closed in the 2nd Congressional race—a move that cost a Republican her race.
The Dona Ana Clerk’s actions then and now taint the election process.
“This shameful and sneaky behavior by the Dona Ana Clerk must be dealt with,” said Republican Party of New Mexico Chairman Steve Pearce. “Amanda Lopez Askin goes out of her way to tarnish the election process. The false accusations against our poll challengers show how far she’ll go to tilt the election and violate the law.”
RPNM continues to fight hard to ensure that ballot integrity and fair elections come first and foremost and the state and counties play by the rules.
