Hearing set for request to impound ballots

Republican congressional candidate Yvette Herrell, who appears to have narrowly lost the race for a district that spans Southern New Mexico, will get a court hearing Friday on her motion to impound more than 8,000 absentee ballots from Doña Ana County.

Third Judicial District Judge Manuel Arrieta has scheduled a 30-minute hearing on the motion at 11:30 a.m. in Las Cruces.

As of Thursday afternoon, Herrell trailed Democrat Xochitl Torres Small in the final vote tally by about 3,500, or 1.8 percent.

Herrell’s campaign asked a judge to impound the ballots to allow for the investigation of “chain-of-custody issues and other improprieties.”

But the campaign has not provided any detailed allegations of wrongdoing and has not returned repeated phone calls and emails from various news organizations seeking comment.

The state legislator from Alamogordo seems to have only given one interview since election night, speaking to Fox News over the weekend, where she first suggested there were reports of problems with the race.

The Secretary of State’s Office has defended the integrity of the race, and Democrats have accused Herrell of seeking to undermine confidence in the electoral process at the same time President Donald Trump seeks to cast doubt on the outcome of races elsewhere around the country.