On Fox, Herrell alleged 'documented complaints' about election. Then she went silent.

LAS CRUCES - "This is about voter integrity and restoring voter confidence," New Mexico state Rep. Yvette Herrell said during a four-minute appearance on Fox News last weekend.

By press time Tuesday, neither she nor her campaign's senior advisor, Rob Burgess, presented evidence or additional comments for Herrell's claims there were "over 100 documented complaints" concerning the Nov. 6 election for New Mexico's second congressional district seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Unofficial results in the House election were delayed after an unusually high number of absentee ballots remained to be counted in Cibola and Doña Ana counties on Wednesday. 

Preliminary results Tuesday night showed Herrell, R-Alamogordo, leading Xochitl Torres Small, a Las Cruces Democrat seeking office for the first time, by 1,975 votes. As news organizations, including the Sun-News, began projecting Herrell as the winner of the race, Herrell made a victory speech in Alamogordo. 

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The problem with the projections was that more than 8,000 absentee ballots had yet to be tabulated, and that was in the home county of Torres Small.

On Nov. 7, after a count of absentee ballots in Doña Ana County indicated Torres Small had won after all, Herrell did not concede. Her campaign's senior advisor, Burgess, said, "We look forward to seeing the results from all provisional ballots throughout the district," and announced there would be no further comment until then.

On Saturday, however, the candidate offered a few comments during an appearance on the "Justice with Judge Jeanine" program hosted by Jeanine Pirro on Fox News.

Ballots counted in front of journalists

During the one-on-one interview, Herrell alleged that New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver had "magically found 4,000 ballots that had not been counted."  

In fact, tabulation of absentee ballots was completed on Nov. 7 in full view of reporters from several news organizations, including the Sun-News.

The seven-member Absent Voter Board, volunteer poll workers designated to handle absentee ballots, were supplemented on that Wednesday by 10 additional poll workers, five Democrats and five Republicans. Among the Republican volunteers was Doña Ana County GOP chairwoman Betty Bishop. 

Doña Ana County Clerk Amanda López Askin explained that a preliminary tally of the absentee ballots had not been available Tuesday night because absentee ballots must be tabulated and reported as a batch, similar to a polling location.

Attempts by the Sun-News to reach Bishop and other officials from county and state Republican Party leadership Tuesday were unsuccessful.

When asked by Pirro if the process had been "fair and square," Herrell said, "I really don't think that it is, because we have a second congressional district race where everybody goes to bed on Tuesday night thinking that I've been declared the winner and then suddenly on Wednesday morning they start hearing that there were 8,000 ballots that came up out of nowhere ... I think that maybe we need to look into it a little bit more."

Herrell also alleged, "We've had over 100 documented complaints about some of the things that happened during this race," but did not elaborate and has not subsequently provided documentation of any complaints.

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During the segment, Pirro falsely stated that the district's congressional seat had been "held by a Republican for the past 16 years.” Rep. Steve Pearce, R-Hobbs, has represented the district in the House continuously since 2011. Pearce vacated the seat in order to run for governor, a race he lost on Nov. 6 to Democrat Michelle Lujan Grisham.

From 2009 to 2011, the congressional seat was held by Democrat Harry Teague, also of Hobbs. Before Teague, Pearce had held the seat since 2003, leaving office after an unsuccessful Senate run in 2008.

Concluding her interview, Herrell said, "We need to look into it, shine some light on it, and make sure; if there's problems, let's fix them."

After interview, campaign goes silent 

On Herrell's campaign Facebook page, a post appeared shortly after the interview stating: "Time to restore voter confidence and voter integrity. Who's in?" 

Still, by press time on Tuesday, there was no indication from the campaign that it would request a recount or contest results of the election. Repeated attempts to reach the candidate and her senior campaign advisor went unanswered.

In a statement shared with other news organizations, Secretary of State spokesman Alex Curtas said, "Doña Ana County voters can have every confidence that their votes were counted properly and in accordance with the law and any suggestion that absentee ballots were somehow ‘magically found’ on election night is simply false.”  

New Mexico Democratic Party Chairwoman Marg Elliston said in a statement: "The people have spoken and I look forward to the incredible work Xochitl will do for New Mexico's second district to expand opportunities for working families. Xochitl will listen to the district and represent us well in Congress."

On Monday, a tally of approximately 1,100 provisional ballots increased Torres Small's lead to 3,539 votes. Unofficial results now show her with 100,570 votes, or 50.9 percent of the total vote compared to 97,031 for Herrell. 

The Secretary of State's office said it expects the election to be certified by the canvassing board on Nov. 27. 

Algernon D'Ammassa can be reached at 575-541-5451, adammassa@lcsun-news.com or @AlgernonActor on Twitter.