
Congressional Democrats announced on Thursday that they have launched an investigation into an election “canvass” taking place in a southern New Mexico county, saying it is run by “conspiracy theorists” who believe the “Big Lie” that the 2020 election was invalid. The effort in Otero County, which has been called a “vigilante audit” by the state’s top election administrator, is run by an organization that calls itself New Mexico Audit Force in association with the company EchoMail, Inc.
Democratic Rep. Carolyn Maloney of New York, the chairwoman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, and fellow Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the chairman of the Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, sent a letter to V.A. Shiva Ayyadurai, Ph.D., a former U.S. Senate candidate who runs EchoMail about the investigation and the possibility that it violates federal law. The company is involved in the Otero County effort. “The Committee is deeply concerned that EchoMail’s actions could undermine the integrity of federal elections and violate Americans’ right to vote,” the two wrote in the letter to EchoMail. “Your company’s proven lack of knowledge about the details of election administration, your personal advocacy of election conspiracy theories, and your partnership with a conspiracist volunteer group to canvass voters raise serious concerns that your actions will damage election integrity in Otero County and beyond, including by intimidating voters in violation of federal law.”
In addition, the two sent a letter to Assistant Attorney General Kristen M. Clarke at the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. “The canvass is being run by volunteers from a conspiracist group whose leaders said they plan to ‘pinpoint’ a ‘list of suspects’ for ‘criminal prosecution,’ and called for ‘arrests,’ ‘prosecutions,’ and ‘firing squads,’” the letter states.
It says the effort includes “potential voter intimidation” in violation of the federal Voting Rights Act.