Well here we go again. The last thing on my mind for over a year until today has been writing. Then the Otero County Commission authorized $50k for an election audit. For those of you not in the loop our commission is composed of three self-styled conservatives. The flip side of that is that the true composition is one con man, a feckless bimbo and one nice guy sans the courage to stand up to the con artist. The three came together today to shaft the taxpayers of Otero County. It isn’t just the $50k giveaway to EchoMail, a CRM company in MA, to conduct an audit of the last election. It is the manner in which data will be collected. A government agent will be coming to your door to verify the voters residing there. No really.
The idea to burn $50k is the brain child of Otero County District II Commissioner and Cowboys for Trump LLC founder Couy Griffin. When Griffin is not embarrassing the county or dodging the tax man he has taken to bankrupting this poor government dependency. In order to conduct this questionable audit Griffin has enlisted an ad hoc group calling themselves “New Mexico Audit Force” everywhere except where such organizations are typically named like here https://portal.sos.state.nm.us/BFS/online/corporationbusinesssearch. The idea this brain trust has is that since they are are volunteers they cannot be state actors. The best part of this is the derelict former assistant prosecutor serving as legal counsel to this donation seeking assumed name, David Clements. Clements, backed up by the group’s apparent leader and wife Erin, pulled off an hours long presentation assuring the Commission that for $50k they and their carpetbagger from Cambridge would find fraud at all costs.
You think I am joking? These clowns intend to run a door to door canvas of the county to validate voter registrations. How long before one gets shotgunned off a porch in Oro Grande or pull their concealed and kill a homeowner in Chaparral? Who is going to pay for this? You. Why? Because the voter rolls can only be requested for campaign or governmental purposes – 1-4-5.5NMSA 1978
C. Each requester of voter data, mailing labels or special voter lists shall sign an affidavit that the voter data, mailing labels and special voter lists shall be used for governmental or election and election campaign purposes only and shall not be made available or used for unlawful purposes.
Here are the definitions:
E. As used in this section:
(1) “election campaign purposes” means relating in any way to a campaign in an election conducted by a federal, state or local government;
(2) “governmental purposes” means noncommercial purposes relating in any way to the structure, operation or decision-making of a federal, state or local government;
Obviously this is not campaign related, so the only way for these shysters to get their hot little hands on the voter data is governmental use and that makes them an arm of the state the same as any other government agent or perjurers. 1-4-5.6 NMSA 1978
B. Any person, organization or corporation or agent, officer, representative or employee thereof who commits unlawful use of voter data, mailing labels or special voter lists is guilty of a fourth degree felony and upon conviction shall be fined one hundred dollars ($100) for each and every line of voter information that was unlawfully used.
Of course these guys would never do anything unlawful to get voter data.
But how can the only legal way for the volunteers to get the data be in furtherance of a governmental function and they not be governmental actors? If you saw the two of these clowns begging for dollars you could appreciate David’s bizarre version of the law. The county attorney tried to warn the three stooges, but… in the end it is the taxpayers paying the costs of litigation while Couy Griffin gathers his carpet bag and returns to Catron County.
Stay tuned. This is a breaking story and there is a lot more fun to be had.