ALAMOGORDO - Today, Republican congressional candidate in New Mexico’s Second Congressional District Yvette Herrell publicly released the results of her legal team’s analysis of the absentee ballot process in Dona Ana County during the 2018 election.

The 44-page report was produced by former New Mexico Director of Elections Bobbi Shearer and Herrell’s legal counsel Carter B. Harrison, IV, of Peifer, Hanson & Mullins, P.A. and can be read in its entirety by clicking here. An executive summary of the report can be found by clicking here.

The report highlights concerning findings from the ballot review, including but not limited to:
The discovery that New Mexico’s voter identification statute was ignored by Dona Ana County for absentee ballots.
Nearly 600 ballots were time stamped as received after the 7 PM deadline on Election Day, and over 100 ballots had no time stamp at all.
Ballots were accepted with registration addresses from out of the state, out of the county, using the Dona Ana County Clerk’s address, PO Boxes, and no registration addresses at all.
The receipts issued by the Dona Ana Absentee Board to the Dona Ana County Clerk for receipt of ballots are short by 1,086 ballots.
Dona Ana County had a bizarrely high non-return rate of over 25% for absentee ballots that were requested, more than double the statewide rate, indicating the possibility that ballots were being requested on behalf of voters who never intended to vote absentee.
Numerous voters filed incident reports after not being allowed to vote in person because records showed they had requested an absentee ballot. The voters stated that they had never requested those ballots.
A report written last week by The Daily Signal on the findings can be read by clicking here.

“It is clear that New Mexico has work to do to ensure the integrity and security of our elections,” said Carter B. Harrison, legal counsel for Herrell. “It is Ms. Herrell’s hope that issuing this report publicly will help spark much needed reforms in the process so that voter confidence can be restored for future elections.”