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New Mexico election drama has roots in wider county movement

FILE - Election workers attend to voters at a makeshift polling station inside a parking garage in Santa Fe, N.M., on Tuesday, May 5, 2020. The arrangements by Santa Fe County Clerk Geraldine Salazar allow for greater social distancing and air circulation to guard against transmission of the coronavirus and avoids possible contamination of Santa Fe County government offices. Early in-person voting in New Mexico's June 2 primary began as election authorities encourage absentee balloting by mail. (AP Photo/Morgan Lee, File) FILE - Supporters of President Donald Trump ride horses outside the Statehouse in Santa Fe, N.M., on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021, to protest President-elect Joe Biden's electoral victory. A rural New Mexico county’s initial refusal to certify its primary election results sent ripples across the country last week, a symbol of how even the most elemental functions of democracy have become politicized pressure points amid the swirl of lies stemming from the 2020 presidential outcome. (AP Photo/Morgan Lee, File) FILE - A new and updated sign is posted outside offices of New Mexico State Senators, as seen Friday, Dec. 8, 2021, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The refusal by a local Republican-controlled commission in one New Mexico county to initially certify its election results posed a question: Why New Mexico, a state that has not been a traditional political battleground? The seeds of the temporary election crisis that rippled across the country had been planted many months before, as conspiracy theories and false claims about the 2020 presidential election began dominate political discussion in heavily Republican Otero County. (AP Photo/Cedar Attanasio, File) FILE - A tour guide points the the ceiling of the State Capitol Rotunda on July 1, 2021, in Santa Fe, N.M. A rural New Mexico county’s initial refusal to certify its primary election results sent ripples across the country last week, a symbol of how even the most elemental functions of democracy have become politicized pressure points amid the swirl of lies stemming from the 2020 presidential outcome. (AP Photo/Cedar Attanasio, File) FILE - The sculpture "Tug 'O War" sculpture by artist Glenna Goodacre sits at the entrance to the New Mexico State capitol building in Santa Fe, N.M., on Jan. 13, 2021. A rural New Mexico county’s initial refusal to certify its primary election results sent ripples across the country last week, a symbol of how even the most elemental functions of democracy have become politicized pressure points amid the swirl of lies stemming from the 2020 presidential outcome. (AP Photo/Cedar Attanasio, File) FILE - Former Nevada Assemblyman Jim Marchant addresses a crowd in front of the Nevada Capitol, March 4, 2021, in Carson, City, Nev. Marchant insisted there hadn't been a legitimate election in his state in more than a decade. But when he won the Republican nomination for Nevada secretary of state tin June 2022, he immediately celebrated the victory as legitimate. (Ricardo Torres-Cortez/Las Vegas Sun via AP, File) FILE - A sign hangs on a fence around the State Capitol in Santa Fe, on Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2021. Republican lawmakers in New Mexico have asked that the state remove protective barriers erected around the state Capitol following the Jan. 6 insurrection in which supporters of former President Donald Trump broke into the U.S. Capitol building in an attempt to overturn the results of the presidential election. Republicans in the state legislature asked the Legislative Council on Tuesday to remove the fences around the facility, arguing that "the threat has not materialized." (Luis Sánchez Saturno/The New Mexican via AP, File) FILE - A ballot drop box awaits deposits at an early voting center in Santa Fe, N.M., on June 1, 2022. The refusal by a local Republican-controlled commission in one New Mexico county to initially certify its election results posed a question: Why New Mexico, a state that has not been a traditional political battleground? The seeds of the temporary election crisis that rippled across the country had been planted many months before, as conspiracy theories and false claims about the 2020 presidential election began dominate political discussion in heavily Republican Otero County. (AP Photo/Morgan Lee, File)
New Mexico election drama has roots in wider county movement