Democrats in the New Mexico state House on Friday advanced a bill making it a felony punishable by up to three years in prison and a fine of up to $5,000 for “knowingly or recklessly” submitting a fake certificate to the electoral college, as urged by the state’s attorney general last month when he announced he was declining to prosecute the fake Trump 2020 electors, the AP reports.
The five New Mexico fake Trump 2020 electors – like their buddies in Pennsylvania – had explicitly stated they were submitting the votes “on the understanding that it might later be determined that we are the duly elected and qualified” so AG Raúl Torrez had declined to pursue charges as his fellow Dem AGs in Nevada and Michigan did – as well as Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis who brought indictments against the leaders of the scam. It’s not totally clear from the AP’s article whether that kind of contingency qualifier still would have worked under the new bill, but either way Republicans are not happy about it, with Republican state Representative Bill Rehm of Albuquerque calling the legislation “politically motivated against a different party.”
New Mexico GOP Chair Steve Pearce has accused the state attorney general of trying to criminalize a process “used by both Democrats and Republicans,” of course leaning on that old chestnut about Hawaii in the 1960 election when the state – in the middle of a recount in its very first presidential election – submitted two slates of electors that would not have changed the outcome anyway.