New Mexico Attorney General Gary King has launched an investigation into a video that allegedly shows Republican officials giving volunteer poll watchers false information about state election law, his office announced Tuesday.
A video brought to light by ProgressNow New Mexico shows a Republican poll watcher training session the liberal group said was “replete with misinformation about ID requirements, the use of provisional ballots, assistance for Spanish-speaking citizens, change of address requirements, and the rights of the disabled at the polls.”
King, a Democrat running for governor in 2014, said he was looking into sanctions against anyone found guilty of voter suppression.
“I will not tolerate voter suppression efforts by anyone, period,” King said in a statement. “We have received a number of complaints since last Friday that there seems to be a concerted effort afoot to discourage some New Mexicans from exercising their right to vote this November. My office is committed to helping ensure fair elections by working to put an immediate stop to such misinformation and publicly correcting what has already been disseminated.”
The training was conducted by the Sandoval County GOP at the Adelante Development Center in Albuquerque. Rep. Steve Pearce (R-NM) defended the tactics in an interview with The Nation last week.
“We’re simply saying that we’re going to start, we’re going to take it back it into our hands,” Pearce said. “We should check for ID since you have to show an ID to do anything in America.”
Here’s the edited video released by ProgressNow New Mexico:
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