Although in the past I have focused my voting concerns more on both US and state candidates, this year I’m more concerned about candidates running at the state level for secretary of state. These individuals are responsible for overseeing elections in their states, including the enforcement of qualifying rules, and the establishment of election-day procedures. 

Next month, 27 secretaries of state are on the ballot, and in at least 10 of those races (including New Mexico) Republicans are nominating candidates who have openly supported the “big lie” of a stolen 2020 election, and want to change the way elections are run to retroactively reflect that.

Some of these candidates are just bat-sh#t crazy. For example, Mark Finchem, the GOP nominee for Arizona’s secretary of state, was the chief cheerleader of Arizona’s audit of the 2020 election. He and his crew literally tried to search ballots for shards of bamboo because they were convinced that they were flown in from Asia for PresidentBiden.

Kim Crockett, the GOP nominee for Minnesota Secretary of State, considered disbarring disabled people from voting, and Pennsylvania’s QAnon-fan Governor Doug Mastriano (who picks the state’s secretary of state nominee) is in a perfect place to control the state’s election system by picking a nominee who aligns with his views of a stolen election and cheating Democrats. In Arizona, Michigan, and Nevada, GOP QAnon-aligned election deniers are running for secretary of state. 

New Mexico’s GOP candidate, Audrey Trujillo, called the 2020 election a “huge coup” last spring and said the U.S. is “no better than any other communist country like Venezuela or any of these other states where our elections are being manipulated.” Then in May, she retweeted a meme that showed pharmaceutical executives with the Star of David beside each of their faces with the caption “Pick your poison!” In the same tweet, she pushed the ridiculous theory of Jewish connections to COVID-19 vaccines (of course she claimed that she didn’t remember the tweet and that Antifa hacked her Twitter account).

Trujillo also has pushed her false claims about the 2020 election on a podcast hosted by former Trump White House chief strategist Steve Bannon. In the interview, she stated, “Somebody asked me, ‘How do you know Trump won New Mexico?’ and I’m like, ‘We didn’t see Biden signs anywhere.” Trujillo is also a regular guest on a conspiracy podcast called “Spoken Words in New Mexico,” where she told host Jordilynn Ortiz back in August that legalized abortion is a plot against Hispanic and Black communities.

This person is running for New Mexico secretary of state? Really?

We should be paying very close attention to these seats, because far-right, QAnon, “big lie” Republicans running for secretary of state are poised to rewrite how elections are run, and if elected, you can bet that will sow mayhem ahead of the 2024 presidential election (especially if the “former guy” tries to run again). If these candidates are elected, they could remain in power indefinitely by changing the rules to ensure the re-election of GOP candidates.

Pay attention to who’s behind the curtain.