by Jane C. Timm
The House Oversight Committee
is launching an investigation into a partisan ballot review in Otero
County, New Mexico, where a self-proclaimed “audit force” is going door
to door and questioning voters.
The county, which borders Texas
and has about 67,000 residents, agreed this year to pay nearly $50,000
to EchoMail, one of the subcontractors involved in Arizona’s partisan ballot review, to review its 2020 election results.
“The
Committee is investigating whether your company’s audit and canvass in
New Mexico illegally interferes with Americans’ right to vote by
spreading disinformation about elections and intimidating voters,” House
Oversight Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., and Jamie
Raskin, D-Md., the chairman of the subcommittee on civil rights and
civil liberties, wrote in a Wednesday letter addressed to V.A. Shiva
Ayyadurai, the founder of EchoMail. [If this is the most secure election in US History, then rhere is nothing to find, right? So what's the big deal? - ED]
Ayyadurai, who participated in Arizona's discredited ballot review, has
regularly advanced conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, as well
as
his own 2020 loss in a Massachusetts Senate primary, despite no evidence of widespread voter fraud anywhere in the U.S. [
How about Colorado where there are photos before and after Dominion's trusted build, showing over 300 election files deleted..or doesn't that count? - ED]
The
House Oversight Committee
is launching an investigation into a partisan ballot review in Otero
County, New Mexico, where a self-proclaimed “audit force” is going door
to door and questioning voters.
The county, which borders Texas
and has about 67,000 residents, agreed this year to pay nearly $50,000
to EchoMail, one of the subcontractors involved in Arizona’s partisan ballot review, to review its 2020 election results.
“The
Committee is investigating whether your company’s audit and canvass in
New Mexico illegally interferes with Americans’ right to vote by
spreading disinformation about elections and intimidating voters,” House
Oversight Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., and Jamie
Raskin, D-Md., the chairman of the subcommittee on civil rights and
civil liberties, wrote in a Wednesday letter addressed to V.A. Shiva
Ayyadurai, the founder of EchoMail. [Really?, then why aren't you equally concerned about all the republican poll watchers that were shut out of the election viewing process, in Detroit and Atllanta, and Milwaukee? - ED]
Ayyadurai, who participated in
Arizona's discredited ballot review, has regularly advanced conspiracy
theories about the 2020 election, as well as his own 2020 loss in a Massachusetts Senate primary, despite no evidence of widespread voter fraud anywhere in the U.S. [Dr. Shiva was the first to discover evidence that a Dominion voting machine algorithm was working against him in every MA County except Franklin where paper ballots were in use. In every other county, he lost by exactly a 60 to 40 ratio. And that is evidence of fraud. Don't miss the hidden assumption here that there must be evidence of many participants involved and not a single automated machine to constitute fraud- ED]
Ayyadurai's
company agreed this year to examine ballot images in Otero County,
evaluate voter signatures and oversee a door-to-door canvass of voters
conducted by volunteers known as the New Mexico Audit Force to determine
the accuracy of the county voter rolls, according to EchoMail contract materials posted online by the county commissioners who approved the deal.
Former President Donald Trump won Otero County by more than 25 percentage points in the last election. [And your point is..? Trump won Florida as well but he had a million votes skimmed off the tallies - ED]
In its letter to Ayyadurai, the House panel said, “The canvas may have a
particular impact on minority communities in Otero County,” noting that 40 percent of the county’s residents are nonwhite Hispanic.
“Otero
County’s diversity makes it susceptible to the same threat identified
by DOJ in Maricopa County—that canvasses of this nature, even when
sponsored by local governments, can result in intimidation directed at
minority voters.” [Nonsense.! This is beyond discrimination and electioneering; it seeks to ensure that a one person, one vote count is found. Investigating 10 people reported to have voted from the same address demand confirmation or denial. - ED]
The ballot review in Otero County is similar to the one Arizona
Senate Republicans orchestrated in Maricopa County last year. Maricopa
County's in-person canvass of voters was eventually
canceled after the Justice Department raised concerns that it would violate civil rights laws to prevent voter intimidation.
The
House Oversight Committee referred its concerns about the Otero County
ballot review to the Justice Department in a second letter Wednesday to
Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Civil Rights Division.
The
committee asked EchoMail to produce documents and communications about
the ballot review and canvass, with a focus on the operation’s policies,
procedures and funding, by March 31.
“The reports coming out of
New Mexico of EchoMail’s canvassers harassing and intimidating people on
their own property in the name of a sham ‘audit’ are truly disturbing. I
urge the Department of Justice to review potential ongoing civil rights
violations arising from this so-called audit, and I look forward to
uncovering the full scope of EchoMail’s actions,” Maloney said in a
statement shared with NBC News.
Ayyadurai did not respond to requests for comment.
New
Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver said at least 20
complaints have been lodged with her office over the canvass operation
and that more than twice as many have been filed with the state attorney
general's office.
“They’re being asked very personal questions
about their marital status, personal, private information that the
public doesn’t have access to, how they voted — which literally nobody
but the voter can or should know unless they want to share that
information," Toulouse Oliver, a Democrat, said Wednesday. "It can have a
very intimidating effect." [Really? Then why aren't you after the state insurance agencies because this information is requested by the insurance people. - ED]
Reviewing the county's election
results is "completely unnecessary," she said, noting that the state
already conducts “three levels of audits,” including a post-election
audit that samples precincts from across the state to verify results.[But apparently aren't concerned about illegals, the deceased, minors and out-of-state people voting in the election - ED]
One of Otero County’s precincts was included in that audit, she said.
Toulouse Oliver and state Attorney General Hector Balderas issued an “advisory” this month
warning voters that some of the 60 canvassers were falsely purporting
to be representatives of the county. The state officials informed voters
that they do not have to answer questions from the canvassers.
Otero County's three commissioners, all of whom are Republicans, later urged the canvassers to clearly identify themselves and wear nametags. But they also defended the ballot review.
“The
intent of the audit is to restore trust, faith, and confidence in the
integrity of our elections,” the GOP commissioners said in a news release. “Election integrity is a non-partisan issue.”
None of the commissioners responded to requests for comment.
One
of the commissioners, Couy Griffin, is scheduled to stand trial next
week on misdemeanor charges in connection with the Jan. 6 riot at the
U.S. Capitol.
Leaders of the New Mexico Audit Force, a volunteer
group, according to the House letter, appear to believe fraud occurred
in the 2020 election.
One of the group's leaders, David Clements,
was reported to have given a speech about the review. “I want arrests, I
want prosecutions, I want firing squads,” he said, according to The Daily Beast.
Asked
if she believed there was fraud in the 2020 election, Erin Clements,
another group leader, told NBC News "this has nothing to do with whether
I believe it, I have hardcore evidence from our canvass that fraud
occurred."
She claimed there was no evidence that voters were
intimidated by her canvassers and said she believed complaints made to
state authorities were fabricated as part of a "smear campaign" against
their operation.
Toulouse Oliver said the New Mexico Audit Force
has pitched its services to at least one other county in the state,
Sandoval County, and appears to be seeking to expand its operation.
She also raised questions about whether the group leaders were being paid for their canvassing.
EchoMail's
materials say parts of the work will be “funded by EchoMail’s
partners.” In Maricopa County, the now-defunct Cyber Ninjas were paid
with some taxpayer dollars but got the bulk of their funding from
outside groups.
Clements said no one in the New Mexico Audit Force is being paid.
