Around this time two years ago, New Mexico held largely unremarkable primary elections, which went smoothly — for the most part. When it came time to certify the results of the primaries, Republican election officials in Otero County balked.
They weren’t aware of any problems with the vote tallies or the local election equipment, but local GOP commissioners refused to certify the results anyway because of their conspiracy theories and unsubstantiated feelings about the voting process.
Fortunately for everyone involved, it didn’t take too long to resolve the matter. New Mexico’s secretary of state, Democrat Maggie Toulouse Oliver, went to the state Supreme Court, asking the justices to order Otero County commissioners to certify the results. The justices agreed and directed local officials to do their job.
This was not, however, an all’s-well-that-ends-well story. On the contrary, it raised uncomfortable questions about other Republican election officials elsewhere doing the same thing in the future. An Associated Press report described the mess in New Mexico as “a preview of the kind of chaos election experts fear is coming.”
The article quoted Jennifer Morrell, a former election official in Colorado and Utah who now advises federal, state and local officials, saying, “We are in scary territory. If this can happen here, where next? It’s like a cancer, a virus. It’s metastasizing and growing.”
That quote came to mind two years later reading this NBC News report out of Nevada.
Local officials in Washoe County, Nevada, voted Tuesday against certifying the results of two recounted primary races after a prominent election denier claimed the results were fraudulent and demanded hand counts of the results.
For those unfamiliar with Washoe County, this is Nevada’s second most populous county. It’s also considered a competitive area in one of the nation’s most closely watched swing states. What happens next isn’t altogether clear, but Nevada’s secretary of state and attorney general — both of whom are Democrats — said last night that local commissioners have failed to uphold state election laws. Just as we saw in New Mexico two years ago, USA Today reported that they’re reportedly preparing to ask the Nevada Supreme Court to require that officials in Washoe County meet their legal obligations. Chances are, this will work out, but an Associated Press report added, “The rejection of the recounts and questions over how to handle it raised concerns about what could happen in November if a local commission refused to certify the presidential election results.” Watch this space.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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