New Mexico Democrats push to criminalize fake electors before presidential vote

SANTA FE, N.M. — New Mexico Democrats who control the Legislature want to make it a crime to pose as a fake presidential elector in one of the few states where Republicans signed certificates falsely declaring Donald Trump the winner in 2020.

Lawmakers on Friday introduced a bill on a party-line committee vote that would make it a misdemeanor to “knowingly or recklessly” submit a false election certificate beginning in the 2024 presidential election. which carries criminal penalties like those being considered in a handful of other states.

Republican voters in seven states signed certificates — mostly involving battles — falsely showing that Trump had won the 2020 election, a strategy at the heart of the criminal charges against Trump and his accomplices.

In New Mexico, President Joe Biden won by 11 percentage points, or about 100,000 votes — the largest margin among states involving so-called fake voters.

Last year, Nevada’s Republican governor, Joe Lombardo, vetoed a bill that would have made it a crime to sign certificates falsely stating that a losing political candidate had won, with penalties ranging from four to 10 years imprisonment. In Colorado, where there were no fake voter certifications in 2020, the Democratic-led Legislature is considering a bill that would make participating in a fake voter program a crime and ban people who do so from office.

New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez, a Democrat, announced in January his decision not to prosecute local Republicans who signed the voter certifications — while urging lawmakers to grant legal authority to prosecute similar behavior in the future and enhance the security of the state’s electoral process.

“We must recognize the seriousness of this behavior,” he told a Senate panel in January.

On Friday, Republican state Rep. Bill Rehm of Albuquerque, Santa Fe, said the legislation is “politically motivated against another party.” He voted against it, noting that the misdemeanor provisions are particularly strict. Violations could be punishable by up to three years in prison. jail time and a fine of up to $5,000. Fake voters did not change Biden’s 2020 victory, he said.

“I don’t think there was any intention in New Mexico to change the outcome,” he said. “I think if we could remove the politics that are the undertone of this, it would be a different situation.”

In New Mexico and Pennsylvania, fake voters added a warning that the certificate was filed in case they were later recognized as duly elected, qualified voters. That would only have been possible if Trump had won one of the dozens of legal battles he waged against states in the weeks after the election.

Democratic officials have launched separate investigations in some states, resulting in charges against Republican voters.

In December, a grand jury in Nevada indicted six Republicans on felony charges related to forged election certifications. They have pleaded not guilty.

Michigan’s attorney general filed felony charges against 16 Republican fake voters in July 2023, including forgery and conspiracy to commit election rigging. One of them had charges dropped after a cooperation agreement was reached. The top charge carried a maximum prison sentence of fourteen years.

In Georgia, three fake electors have been charged alongside Trump and others in a sweeping indictment accusing them of participating in a vast scheme to illegally overturn the presidential election results. They have pleaded not guilty.

The New Mexico bill, from Democrats including House Majority Leader Gail Chasey of Albuquerque, would also establish felony penalties for interfering with election results — defined as knowingly or recklessly suppressing, damaging, altering, forging or otherwise falsifying election documents, or preparing or filing false election documents. election documents.

Republican Party of New Mexico Chairman Steve Pearce has accused the attorney general of criminalizing a process “used by both Democrats and Republicans,” referring to the 1960 presidential election. Democratic voters in Hawaii cast their ballots for John F. Kennedy, despite that state initially being drafted for Republican Richard Nixon.

But the outcome of the election in Hawaii was unclear, requiring a recount, and Nixon would ultimately lose the state. After the 2020 election, every court challenge to Trump’s campaign and his allies to challenge his loss failed.