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A New Mexico County commissioner convicted of his role in the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol has vowed to oppose a state Supreme Court order and fail to certify the results of his county’s primary elections during a scheduled meeting. on Friday, a decision that could throw the state the election process in chaos.
Qui Griffin, 48, founder of a group called Cowboys for Trump, said in an interview that he was too concerned about the security of state voting machines to vote to verify the results of the June 7 primary for Otero County, citing are widely discredited theories of hacking and electoral fraud.
The three-member, The National Commission in the small county on the Texas border is due to hold an extraordinary meeting on Friday afternoon to decide whether to verify the election results in time to meet the state deadline. A second jurisdiction in central Torrance County delayed the certification vote earlier this week and was due to consider the matter Friday morning.
Griffin was in Washington on Friday, where he was due to stand trial in a U.S. district court on charges of entering a restricted area during the Capitol attack.
“My oath to the people I serve is more important than any threat the government makes to me,” Griffin said in an interview Thursday. “If they threaten me by putting me in jail, I will go to jail.”
Qui Griffin was found guilty of invading the US Capitol
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court of New Mexico granted an urgent petition by the Secretary of State asking Otero Commissioners to do their job and approve about 7,300 votes in the June 7 primary, which is the only legislature of the county and county sheriff. the balance.
The Supreme Court of New Mexico has ordered the county commission to certify the vote
New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver also referred the matter to Attorney General Hector Balderas, saying in a request Thursday that the Otero commission committed “numerous illegal acts” when it voted to manually count the election results, remove ballot boxes, termination of the use of state voting systems and delay in the certification of the primary vote.
Griffin and two other Otero commissioners – Vicki Marquard and Gerald Matterley, neither of whom responded to calls or emails asking for comment – face contempt of court and penalties, such as possible dismissal.
“The commission must respect the rule of law or we will take legal action,” Balderas said in a statement.
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