Enchantment State News

The Democratic Party of New Mexico recently issued a press release claiming that the state's Republican Party (RPNM) is endangering residents of the state with regard to mail-in ballots.

“The Republican Party’s position is that in-person voting should remain the same as pre-pandemic times, endangering voters, election workers and public servants," the Democratic Party press release said. 

RPNM said that the press release from the Democratic Party is "disgraceful," also calling it a lie and a falsehood. RPNM also said it is in disbelief that the Democratic Party of New Mexico (DPNM) would release such a statement that distorts the truth, and said the DPNM is telling residents of the state that the RPNM is ultimately "allowing people to die," which is fear-mongering. 

"The RPNM never supported the idea of an in-person election during the pandemic," the Republican Party said. "It’s beyond belief that the DPNM would blatantly lie about this and the party should publicly apologize. In addition, the fact that the DPNM agrees with a petition to the Supreme Court over election procedures demonstrates that DPNM supports a violation of New Mexico’s separation of powers. The legislature is responsible for election law, not the Supreme Court."

The DPNM also claimed the Republican Party filed a lawsuit to stop mail-in ballots, according to DPNM Chair Marg Elliston. 

“I’m stunned and angered that the Democrats would suggest this, to say that we’d want to endanger lives," Republican Party of New Mexico Chairman Steve Pearce said in the RPNM press release. "To besmirch our party with such statements is beyond belief. Health and safety of voters and poll workers are the most important things. We went to the Supreme Court to stop vote-by-mail ballots, which have no protections against fraud. Mail-in absentee ballots do. Again, RPNM wants everyone to be healthy and safe, so we welcome mail-in absentee voting.”