United States | Trust in the vote

Trump truthers are vying to run America’s local elections

A mostly bureaucratic endeavour is becoming a partisan battleground

2C7EYTR Albuquerque, NM, USA. 16th July, 2020. July 16, 2020, Roberto E. Rosales.A protest for Freedom took place Friday afternoon at Civic plaza in Downtown Albuquerque. Most attendees were there to protest the Governor's mandate on wearing masks. Pictured is Couy Griffin(Cq) leader of the group Cowboys for Trump as he arrives to the event. Albuquerque, New Mexico. Roberto E. Rosales/Albuquerque Journal Credit: Roberto E. Rosales/Albuquerque Journal/ZUMA Wire/Alamy Live News
|Santa Fe

Otero county, in New Mexico, is home to fewer than 70,000 people. Yet the rural municipality found unfortunate fame recently when local officials refused to certify the results of their primary elections, held on June 7th. New Mexico’s secretary of state, Maggie Toulouse Oliver, swiftly asked the state Supreme Court to compel the county commissioners to certify the results. They eventually voted 2-1 to do so. Couy Griffin was the lone dissenter. The founder of Cowboys For Trump, Mr Griffin had to dial in to the vote from Washington, dc. On the same day that he voted to disenfranchise his constituents, he was sentenced to two weeks in jail for taking part in the Capitol riot on January 6th last year.

This article appeared in the United States section of the print edition under the headline “Questions of trust”

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