Behind the raw public frustration and anger over election security that has played out this week in New Mexico was a hint of something deeper — a growing divide between the state’s Democratic power structure and conservative rural residents who feel their way of life is under attack.
FILE - In this March 12, 2019 file photo, advocates for gun rights in New Mexico including rural ranchers joined with a interstate group called Cowboys for Trump, approach the New Mexico state Capitol in Santa Fe on horseback.
Otero County is similar to the handful of other New Mexico counties where residents have questioned the accuracy of election results and given voice to unfounded conspiracy theories about voting systems that have rippled across the country since former President Donald Trump lost re-election in 2020.
Even as they voted to certify their elections, sometimes reluctantly, commissioners from several New Mexico counties said they were bound by the law to take that step — thanks to legislation passed by Democrats. They urged their residents to take the fight to the statehouse. Otero County is among more than a dozen self-proclaimed 2nd Amendment “sanctuary” counties in rural New Mexico to approve defiant resolutions against recent state gun control laws. The county also has embraced resistance to President Joe Biden’s goals for conservation of more private land and waterways for natural habitat, arguing it will cordon off already limited private land.
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