That competitive contest for the Democratic nomination for Secretary of State is getting front-paged as opponents of Santa Fe County Clerk Katharine Clark try to tie her in legal knots by claiming that she has violated the law by repeatedly posting early and absentee election results before the official closing of the polls at 7 p.m. 

But there's a problem. 

The accusations have not been accompanied by definitive proof that Clark was an early bird. Her rival in the June primary--fellow County Clerk Amanda López Askin of Las Cruces--says she saw the early results posted on the Internet but no other officials or observers have surfaced to back that assertion. Neither has the Secretary of State's office.

The attorney pursuing an ethics complaint against Clark is David Duhigg, brother of ABQ Dem state Sen. Katy Duhigg, also an attorney who is an intense critic of Clark's and a former ABQ city clerk who has repeatedly attacked Clark on the socials. 

Attorney David Duhigg released a a list of times in a letter to the editor that he says are official records from the Santa Fe clerk's office and that show early results were posted before polls closed for five different elections. However, he offered no proof that anyone other than the Sec. of State's office saw the early results.

We asked our Legal Beagles to help clear up what must be a confusing picture to the average voter. Their collective answer is that unless the early results were available for public consumption before polls closed at 7 p.m. the complaint is a nothing burger. 

Clark

Joe, the key legal question is not whether Santa Fe County staff were preparing or uploading results before 7 p.m.; it is whether those results were publicly visible or released before polls closed. The Secretary of State says unofficial results become available after 7 PM and are posted as received from county offices, and state statute is about “unlawful release” before the polls close. So if Duhigg's timestamps truly show the results were publicly accessible before 7 p.m., that could support the complaint. But Clark’s defense is that internal processing may happen earlier while safeguards prevent external visibility until after polls close, which would mean the timestamps need to be examined carefully to determine whether they reflect internal submission, a public webpage, or cached/visible results. 

If it can be shown a public-facing source, screenshot, or webpage timestamp proving voters or the public could see results before 7 p.m., that is a meaningful issue. If the timestamps only show that county staff uploaded data internally before release time, that is much weaker and may fit the normal workflow described by the clerk’s campaign and the Secretary of State’s office. 

Clark beat out Lopez Askin at the March Dem preprimary convention 46-36 percent with a third candidate getting the remainder. That was the first indication that Clark may have the edge in what appears to be a close race. Expect plenty OF more action in this one. 

HEINRICH FALLOUT

Heinrich and Mullin

Don't punish Dem land commission candidate Juan Sanchez over the voting behavior of his former boss, Sen. Martin Heinrich. So argues reader Carolyn Serafin Abeyta: 

Like reader Jose Campos, I too am a Dem activist from Valencia County. Like Jose, I am incredibly disappointed in Sen. Martin Heinrich's support of an unqualified, uneducated, ill-tempered, election-denying, Trump-supporting appointee like Markwayne Mullin for secretary of the Homeland Security Department. However, unlike Jose I will not waver in my support for Juan Sanchez, or any other candidate Heinrich endorsed. It is not fair to the candidates who did not disappoint and betray their constituents. Honestly, it doesn't make any sense. Juan continues to be the best candidate for this position. 

I sincerely hope that Senator Heinrich reflects on his poor decision and the repercussions that have resulted from it. For me and others, the question we rhetorically ask ourselves is, would Markwayne have crossed the aisle for Martin? Would he have crossed the MAGA stronghold for the sake of diplomacy? I suppose I assumed that those of us who have ardently supported Martin over the years would have been considered a better "friend" to him than Mullin. 

The photo of Heinrich with then-Sen. Mullin was generated by AI. 

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