EXCLUSIVE: Audit Finds Signs of Fraud in New Mexico House Race

The Daily Signal ^ | February 15, 2019 | Fred Lucas

[CedarDave]

An audit of absentee ballots suggests fraud may have occurred in one of the closest House races in the country, The Daily Signal has learned.

Democrat Xochitl Torres Small squeaked by Republican Yvette Herrell in the final results of the Nov. 6 election.

On election night, Herrell declared victory in the race to represent New Mexico’s 2nd Congressional District. But as more votes were counted, Torres Small secured the win.

The roughly 3,500-vote victory for Torres Small—out of about 200,000 cast in the southern New Mexico district—relied heavily on absentee ballots from Doña Ana County, the largest county in the district, including the Las Cruces area.

A new audit report obtained by The Daily Signal alleges a “concerted effort” to push for absentee votes where New Mexico voter ID laws are not enforced. It also points to potential fraud in applying for absentee ballots, and says a significant number of absentee ballots were time-stamped after the 7 p.m. deadline election night.

Torres Small spokeswoman Jennifer Lee did not respond to phone and email inquiries from The Daily Signal for this story.

The report says nongovernmental groups “are almost certainly engaging in at best aggressive—and at worst fraudulent—procurement of absentee ballot applications.”

This would have involved an outside group that requested a large quantity of absentee ballots on behalf of others, possibly without their knowledge.

Fully 25 percent of the people who purportedly requested absentee ballots from the Doña Ana County clerk didn’t mail them back, according to the report.

That is more than twice the statewide average for unreturned absentee ballots. To receive an absentee ballot for mailing back, a voter first must send in an application providing a reason why he or she can’t vote in person on Election Day.

[CedarDave]

In an email received by me today, Herrell details the extent of the fraud as found by the audit. I'll link to the actual reports at the end of the comments.

Today, Yvette publicly released the results of her legal team’s analysis of the absentee ballot process in Dona Ana County during the 2018 election.

The 44-page report was produced by former New Mexico Director of Elections Bobbi Shearer and Herrell’s legal counsel Carter B. Harrison, IV, of Peifer, Hanson & Mullins, P.A. and can be read in its entirety by clicking here. An executive summary of the report can be found by clicking here.

The report highlights concerning findings from the ballot review, including but not limited to:

• The discovery that New Mexico’s voter identification statute was ignored by Dona Ana County for absentee ballots.
• Nearly 600 ballots were time stamped as received after the 7 PM deadline on Election Day, and over 100 ballots had no time stamp at all.
• Ballots were accepted with registration addresses from out of the state, out of the county, using the Dona Ana County Clerk’s address, PO Boxes, and no registration addresses at all.
• The receipts issued by the Dona Ana Absentee Board to the Dona Ana County Clerk for receipt of ballots are short by 1,086 ballots.
• Dona Ana County had a bizarrely high non-return rate of over 25% for absentee ballots that were requested, more than double the statewide rate, indicating the possibility that ballots were being requested on behalf of voters who never intended to vote absentee.
• Numerous voters filed incident reports after not being allowed to vote in person because records showed they had requested an absentee ballot. The voters stated that they had never requested those ballots.

A report written last week by The Daily Signal on the findings can be read by clicking here.

“It is clear that New Mexico has work to do to ensure the integrity and security of our elections,” said Carter B. Harrison, legal counsel for Herrell. “It is Ms. Herrell’s hope that issuing this report publicly will help spark much needed reforms in the process so that voter confidence can be restored for future elections.”

[ProudFossil]

So when does the indictments begin? SATIRE!!!!!

[CedarDave]

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[dljordan]

“Xochitl Torres”

Aztec heart surgeon?

[Steely Tom]

Democrats can apparently cheat as much as they like on elections, with impunity.

This includes by importing millions of ineligible voters.

[BenLurkin]

Now cut that out.

[laplata]

“Xochitl Torres”

Aztec heart surgeon?

><><

Good one!

[GSWarrior]

Republicans piling on...again. How fair is that?

[hanamizu]

Now cut that out.

---

Also a good one!

[Bonemaker]

“But as more votes were counted, Torres Small secured the win.”

Do we see a nationwide pattern here? Yes we do. Unfortunately, the FBI gumshoes don’t have a clue.

[LegendHasIt]

I’m Shocked!

I’m shocked that some lawyer figured out what WE all knew the morning after the election, that is.

Too bad all the rest of the lawyers and judges, and Parties and politicians, both Democrat and Republican will do everything they can to see that nothing will happen.

[ArtDodger]

That’s enough out of you guys!

[MinorityRepublican]

Democrats cheated in a house election in NM. No one cares. Republicans “cheated” in a house election in NC. All hell breaks loose.

[Eagles6]

Demonrats can’t win without fraud.

[shanover]

I love the “bombshells” of things we have always known from Clinton to now. Nothing will be done.

[Bonemaker]

An ancestor.

[alloysteel]

“Ballot harvesting” alone, has constituted much of the fraud involved. This is what happens when you have “vote by mail” as the primary means of securing the vote from those citizens too indolent to bother to show up on election day, and the “community organizers” go around to the addresses where the absentee vote has been mailed out to, encouraging the laggards to get together the materials and they will deliver them to the ballot clerk. Of course, the ballots that have been marked “wrongly” somehow never get back for the tally.

[neverevergiveup]

“Unfortunately, the FBI gumshoes don’t have a clue.”

Or were/are complicit.

[Luke21]

Nothing will happen.

Lets get all fired up to vote again, shall we?

[Slyfox]

I will stop this car!