County avoids election turmoil

So far, it appears Republicans’ skepticism over election integrity hasn’t much affected Quay County, and local officials say part of that is because of County Clerk Ellen White who, ironically, is a Democrat.

Not all New Mexico counties can make that claim. Otero County commissioners for several days refused to certify the results of the June 7 primary election, though they cited no voting irregularities there. Torrance and Sandoval counties experienced unruly opposition from the public when commissioners approved the canvass of their primary results. A group in nearby Roosevelt County is conducting a so-called audit of the 2020 general election.

Many constituents in those counties regard the election results with suspicion — especially involving Dominion vote-counting machines.

Two Quay County commissioners earlier last month said they were asked to delay certification or scrutinize the canvass of local primary election results.

Instead, they voted unanimously to certify the results during a typically quiet regular meeting and sent them on the New Mexico Secretary of State, which in turn certified statewide results a few weeks later.

Quay County Commission Chairman Franklin McCasland, a Republican, said he was pressured to delay the canvass vote last month “by a select few individuals that still believe in election conspiracy theories.”

McCasland said there was no justification in the commission not approving the vote.

“I don’t believe there are any issues with our elections,” he said. “We took an oath when we were elected to the county commission to do our due diligence and follow the New Mexico Constitution. That is one of the requirements to canvass the vote, is to approve the elections.

“I do have confidence in the election process and the job the county clerk is doing to make sure we have correct and honest elections.”

Commissioner Jerri Rush, also a Republican, said she was asked by one constituent “to look into” election issues and research them before her vote on the canvass.

She said what she found didn’t support a delay.

“I found out if we didn’t certify those votes, we ran the risk of everyone’s vote in Quay County being kicked out, of none of our votes being counted,” she said.

Rush said she also found out that hand counting of ballots come with a 6% margin of error, compared to just a 0.5% margin of error with machine counting.

“I do not think there was any reason for Quay County to not certify the votes. So, I went ahead and did it,” she said. “I feel like the Quay County election was well run. I feel like the Quay County election was valid.”

Rush said she later went to a Republican Party of Quay County meeting in Tucumcari and explained her county commission vote to members.

“I explained to them why I felt like we needed to go ahead and certify those votes and why I felt comfortable doing it,” she said. “I saw a little bit of skepticism on some faces, but I felt like it was well received.”

Deanna Osborn, chairwoman of the Quay County GOP, wasn’t at the June meeting Rush attended but said the organization did not issue any sort of edict to oppose the county’s approval of the primary election canvass.

Osborn said her organization also received no direction from the New Mexico Republican Party to oppose the vote certification. During a phone interview, she rechecked her email to see whether there were any such instructions from the state organization.

Osborn, McCasland and Rush each expressed confidence with how White, who has worked in that office since 1998, runs local elections.

“Our county clerk seems to do her best to equalize it all and make it run smoothly,” Osborn said. “She listens to both parties, both sides. I think Ellen does a fine job making sure elections in the county are run very smoothly.”

McCasland said previous checks into vote totals in Quay County have shown a high degree of accuracy.

“We’ve had some hand counts and audits with Dominion machines in the county. They come back to the exact number that the tabulator says,” he said.

Osborn said the local GOP assigned poll watchers in Logan and other precincts during the primary. She said they saw only “minor glitches” at the polls and “nothing major.”

During the 2020 general election, Bob Howles, a Republican poll watcher at a Tucumcari precinct, said he didn’t expect any irregularities or problems. Referring to White’s office, he said: “They run a pretty tight ship here.”

Shortly before the commission’s vote on the canvass, White said Dominion machines never are connected to the internet, contrary to the belief of some Republicans. She also said only county election officials have access to election data and equipment before they’re submitted to the New Mexico Secretary of State.

White expressed dismay and irritation with the continued distrust of Dominion machines and elections more than 18 months after the 2020 presidential election.

“I think (the voters) trust me; they don’t trust the voting machines,” she said. “It has everything to do with the Dominion voting machines. They’ve been fed lies by the Republican Party following that 2020 general election that the machines can change numbers, that they can change what they report, what counties report to the state. They were fed a line of bullsh-- about how they operated, and they refuse to learn anymore about it.”

White said some people wanted a hand count of ballots during the primary election instead of Dominion machines doing the tallying.

“There are no grounds to do that,” she said. “And they have the statutory obligation to certify election results by a deadline. Unless there was wrongdoing reported, they had no ability to not certify.”

White pointed out Dominion machines were chosen in 2012 by a Republican Secretary of State and a bipartisan committee in New Mexico.

White said her office underwent a random audit after the 2020 election. It also conducted a hand count of votes in a House precinct last year to determine a winner in a very close village council race. Both verified the Dominion machine’s accuracy.

Dominion has filed multibillion-dollar defamation lawsuits against individuals and media outlets that reported, without evidence, the company facilitated voter fraud during the 2020 presidential election. Those cases are ongoing.

“They won’t accept that Dominion has proved over and over that none of that can happen,” White said. “They won’t accept any of that fact-finding. They’re stuck in the conspiracy theory of it and won’t accept that they’re wrong and move on.”

White also laid most of the blame for election mistrust on former president Donald Trump, who insists without evidence that fraud prevented him from winning re-election.

“He’ll never claim all this is his fault, but hands down, it is,” she said.

On a more local level, White also blames David and Erin Clements of Dona Ana County for their quest to “audit” New Mexico election results, including Roosevelt County’s, by using open-records requests.

“It’s absolutely not an audit. That have no legal ability to do an audit,” she said. “They’re still on the ‘Trump got cheated’ scandal. And he won in those counties they’re auditing.”

White said if a county clerk has suspicions about voting irregularities, he or she can go to a judge to hold off on certification and prompt an investigation.

“We have checks and balances from the beginning of an election to the end. We have permits that match signatures and how many ballots we got. We don’t go into it willy-nilly, not knowing what the balance is at the end of the night,” she said.

Asked whether the New Mexico Secretary of State can do anything differently to boost confidence in elections, White couldn’t think of any.

“I think the tools and procedures are in place to adequately conduct an election. Until these people who don’t trust it actually have boots on the ground and learn about it, it’s not going to change,” she said.

White was pessimistic that trust in elections can be restored anytime soon.

“It’s just discredited nationwide election processes. Nobody trusts it now. And there’s no facts and no proof — none,” she said.

Rush said: “Dominion’s gotten a bad name, whether it’s deserved or not, and it creates suspicion.”

Rush weighed in about future elections.

“I do believe that most people, Democrats and Republicans, want a fair and valid election,” she said. “We need to stop being suspicious of each other, and we need to make it where people don’t cheat. I also have seen people cheat at little things when it meant nothing, so I know there’s somebody there who wants to cheat.”

While expressing confidence in White during local elections, Osborn said some changes need to be made.

“I think there are issues there that can probably be corrected. I think the main concern right now is ballot drop boxes,” she said, adding that method needs to be “more verifiable and more secure.”

“My whole mind-set is this: 2020 is gone. Let’s focus on 2022,” Osborn said, adding that election officials need to “make sure we don’t have these kind of problems.”