Election fraud charges weren’t ready for prime time when aired, Pearce says
What happens on “Inside New Mexico” stays inside New Mexico.
Since the presidential election, New Mexico Republican Party Chairman Steve Pearce has made some wild allegations about the presidential election vote on his radio show, “Inside New Mexico.”
Among them, that Democrats found voters in states where the vote was close and results were unknown for days after the election, purchased their unused absentee ballots, filled them out and handed them in. He’s also alleged that voting systems deleted votes for President Donald Trump or switched them to President-elect Joe Biden.
There has been no evidence presented that either happened.
Interestingly, if he were speaking outside New Mexico, Pearce might not make those claims.
He has been asked to appear on Fox News and Newsmax to discuss the election. But he declined their invitations because, he said, he didn’t feel that his claims were ready for prime time.
“I never made any of these allegations publicly because I don’t really respect people who go out and throw out hypotheses in front of the press on a very volatile issue,” Pearce said in an interview. “… Because I felt like we had to be very judicious because these were fairly big issues and to politicize them didn’t seem right to me.”
So if the allegations aren’t ready for Newsmax, why speak of them in New Mexico?
“Are you kidding me? Are you saying that the six radio stations or 10 or 20 or however many chose to play this radio thing in New Mexico, rural New Mexico, is the same format as Fox News or Newsmax?” he asked. “I think it’s a ludicrous question, my friend.”
But Pearce said he still has questions about the vote in New Mexico that haven’t been answered.
Specifically, he said, GOP challengers were not allowed into rooms to observe the certification of votes in several counties. He also said the party wasn’t given access to the state’s voting machines to run tests on them after the election. Additionally, he said, there are “notarized affidavits” outlining “irregularities” in the vote in New Mexico that haven’t been addressed.
Alex Curtas, a spokesman for the Secretary
of State’s Office, said guidance provided to county clerks and political parties was consistent with state law.
For example, he said, state law allows challengers into rooms where voting is being conducted, but they can’t handle ballots or view a voter’s date of birth or Social Security number. He also said challengers can view voting machines before the polls open to make sure the counter is at zero, and the public has access to a post-election voting systems audit on the office’s website.
Pearce’s “continued insistence regarding any election ‘irregularities’ is simply not true and is a slap in the face to the dedicated and hardworking election officials across the state,” Curtas said. “Enough is enough.”
GOV. STAYS HOME: Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a co-chair of Biden’s transition team, won’t be at the inauguration.
Lujan Grisham, who had previously been mentioned as a possible vice president or Cabinet member for Biden, will be staying in New Mexico.
“The governor has not traveled outside the state since the outset of the pandemic,” said Nora Meyers Sackett, a spokeswoman for the governor.