SANTA FE, NM ( Associated Press) — New Mexico’s top election regulator says it received threats to its security via an email and telephone call at its offices and has notified the FBI.
Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver told The Associated Press on Tuesday that there had been three threats of threats against him within the past two weeks and that federal investigators had been alerted. Two threats were made indirectly in a phone call to the office of the Secretary of State.
The FBI in Albuquerque did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Toulouse Oliver previously went into hiding in response to online threats by leaving her home for several weeks in December 2020 and January 2021. Investigators linked those threats to Iran against several election officials on a website.
Toulouse Oliver said, “I went to a good, long period with anything”. “My election security officer has sent them to the FBI. They’re clearly seeing it.”
Toulouse Oliver said the threatening email touched down on social media and video commentary in defense of the widely debunked documentary “2000 Mules” by a conservative filmmaker alleging widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election.
The Secretary of State for New Mexico sought to remove a false claim in the film on the agency’s “rumor versus reality” website regarding elections and misinformation, prompting a response from filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza.
Toulouse Oliver was involved in a standoff with local officials in Otero County in recent weeks, which nearly derailed the verification of election results.
The Otero County Commission initially declined to substantiate the local results of the June 7 primary because of unspecified concerns with the Dominion voting system, a target of widespread conspiracy theories since the 2020 presidential election.
After being ordered to certify by the New Mexico Supreme Court, the commissioners voted 2-1 to sign off on the election and avert a wider crisis. The statewide results of the June 7 preliminary examination were certified by the State Publicity Board on Tuesday.
