Another 2020 election denier will be on November’s ballot
GOP voters have chosen a second election-denying candidate to oversee elections
Last night, Audrey Trujillo became the latest 2020 election denier to win her party’s nomination to oversee a state’s elections.
The New Mexico Republican is part of a wave of candidates beholden to conspiracy theories about election hacking and fraud who are seeking to lead elections in more than a dozen states — including in many states that were decisive in President Biden’s victory.
The candidacies are a stark contrast from decades during which Republican and Democratic election officials steered clear of partisan conspiracy theories and were largely on the same page about election security and how to fairly determine who won and who lost.
If they’re victorious in November, election watchers fear, these candidates could disregard or intentionally violate security measures. They could also refuse to certify legitimate results or spread unfounded doubt if their preferred candidate loses.
- “If they’re continuing to maintain the 2020 election was stolen or rigged after everything we’ve seen from intelligence agencies and election officials, it’s fair to ask if they’d be willing to bend or break the rules when they’re overseeing elections,” David Levine, elections integrity fellow at the Alliance for Securing Democracy, told me.
Trujillo has been outspoken in her baseless criticism of the 2020 contest. She has called Biden’s 2020 election victory a “coup” and compared U.S. voting systems to “any other communist country like Venezuela or any of these other states where our elections are being manipulated,” per the New York Times.
In fact, federal and state election officials declared the 2020…