ROSWELL, NEW MEXICO — Refusing to be defined as a victim within a vulnerable population, Roswell’s candidate for secretary of state said Wednesday that those who assert Hispanics lack the ability to obtain IDs to vote insult all Latinos.
State Rep. Nora Espinoza, R-Rowsell, the guest speaker at Wednesday’s monthly luncheon of the Chaves County Republican Women, said that when one person votes illegally, all other voters are disenfranchised.
“Let me tell you what disenfranchisement really is,” Espinoza said. “If a single ineligible voter casts a vote, every single honest voter in New Mexico is disenfranchised. If anyone votes in the place of someone else, whether that person be alive or dead or barks, every honest New Mexican is disenfranchised.”
Espinoza, who is Hispanic, said she supports combating voter fraud with a state voter ID law. Espinoza said she will press the issue in her campaign for secretary of state, the third highest office in state government after governor and lieutenant governor, to ensure the integrity of elections.
“The more people believe the system is honest, that your vote will count, that someone can’t steal a vote and therefore wipe out your vote, and that the election will be fair to all, well, the more likely they are to believe it’s worthwhile, the more likely they are to participate,” Espinoza said. “If we elect someone who doesn’t believe in these common sense [auth] ideas, they are electing someone with a another agenda in mind altogether. And that agenda does not include safeguarding your vote and the assurance of integrity in the voting system.”
Espinoza said her Democratic opponent, Bernalillo County Clerk Maggie Toulouse Oliver, is espousing the same liberal ideas that Toulouse Oliver ran on unsuccessfully in 2014.
“What were those ideas?” Espinoza asked. “In 2014, that candidate said she is against voter ID, wants to register voters as they walk up to the polls on Election Day, believes voter fraud is a myth. Every poll shows that 75 percent of all New Mexicans, Democrats, Republicans, independents alike, all support voter ID. All New Mexicans want fair elections.”
