Election ‘Vigilante‘ Group Posing as County Workers, Says New Mexico’s State Auditor

[essentialsaltes]

Ever wonder if you could do even worse than hiring the Cyber Ninjas?

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One of the group’s leaders gave a speech in a church about the audit in which he said “I want arrests, I want prosecutions, I want firing squads.”

Leaders of a far-right Telegram group pledged that its members would not misrepresent themselves as county employees when they went knocking on doors in Otero County, New Mexico for a “canvas” of local voter rolls. But just weeks later, state officials say members of the group are misrepresenting themselves—and possibly opening the county up to lawsuits.

Otero County is a solidly Republican district, with more than 60 percent of residents voting for Donald Trump in 2020. There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud there, or anywhere else in the U.S. Nevertheless, Otero commissioners have spent nearly $50,000 on an “audit” of their county’s 2020 election by EchoMail, a conspiracy-peddling company that assisted with a chaotic audit in Maricopa County, Arizona. EchoMail, in turn, contracted the “New Mexico Audit Force” or NMAF, a Telegram group that routinely promotes election conspiracy theories, to knock on Otero County doors and ask residents about their votes.

[State auditor]: “Additionally, from our review, it appears the County Commissioners may have abused their power in approving the County’s contract with the vendor for an ‘election audit’ that was not in the best interests of constituents and seemingly purely political grandstanding. The stated purpose and methodology of the ‘audit’ gives the appearance of the entire affair simply being a careless and extravagant waste of public funds, which does not appear to serve any useful purpose to the taxpayers of Otero County.”

 

[Hank77]

Grifters take advantage wherever they can and desperate people are easy victims.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Otero commissioners have spent nearly $50,000 on an “audit” of their county’s 2020 election by EchoMail, a conspiracy-peddling company that assisted with a chaotic audit in Maricopa County, Arizona. EchoMail, in turn, contracted the “New Mexico Audit Force” or NMAF, a Telegram group that routinely promotes election conspiracy theories, to knock on Otero County doors and ask residents about their votes.

EchoMail, a company at the center of Otero County’s shady election “audit,” says it has nothing to do with allegations of intimidation. Congress argues otherwise.

“EchoMail is not conducting any audit in Otero County and was contracted to solely provide a data warehouse system including professional services,” EchoMail CEO Shiva Ayyadurai wrote in a response to the congressional probe. He also denied any involvement with the NMAF’s actions.

[But] “The leader of NMAF, Erin Clements, submitted official requests for voter information to the Otero County Clerk’s Office and the State of New Mexico in which she stated that she was representing EchoMail,” the Oversight letter notes. On a signed affidavit attached to that request, “Ms. Clements wrote that she was ‘representing EchoMail.’”

 

[essentialsaltes]

EchoMail, a company at the center of Otero County’s shady election “audit,” says it has nothing to do with allegations of intimidation. Congress argues otherwise.

While there are a lot of questions about the whys and wherefores of this audit, and who is owed how much for what, at least we have a result.

it is the position of EchoMail they fulfilled their obligations under the Contract and found No Election Fraud as a result of their services