A House committee is investigating a GOP “audit” of the 2020 election in a New Mexico county after receiving reports a private company is using volunteers knocking on voters’ doors to create “a list of suspects for criminal prosecution,” The Hill reported on Thursday, March 17, 2022 (read story here).
The company, hired by Republican county commissioners in Otero County at taxpayer expense, has pushed false conspiracy theories about the election and publicly called for “arrests, prosecutions, and firing squads,” according to a letter to the company demanding information and records.
Its founder (photo, left; profile here), is a failed Republican candidate who’s also been involved in promoting Covid-19 disinformation and fake cures.
In Arizona, Republicans who conducted an widely derided “audit” of Maricopa ballots considered sending canvassers door-to-door to contact voters, but backed off after being warned it likely would violate federal law.
The New Mexico canvassing, which reeks of voter intimidation, attracted attention after at least 60 voters complained about the canvassers. Democrats on the House committee have asked the Justice Department to investigate for possible civil rights violations.