House panel launches investigation into New Mexico's 2020 Election Audit

This audit was authorized by a Republican-led County commission.

The House Oversight Committee sent a letter to EchoMail, one the contractors in Arizona's partisan vote review. It requested that the private company produce documents regarding its forensic audit of Otero County in New Mexico by the end of the month.

"The Constitution protects the right to vote and is the cornerstone our democratic system is built upon," Democratic Reps. Carolyn Maloney and Jamie Raskin, chair of a subcommittee dealing with civil rights, wrote to the company.

The committee stated that it is investigating possible intimidation by volunteers of a conspiracist group, who go door to door canvassing voters for Otero County and asking intrusive question.

According to the company's proposal for forensic audit, volunteers from New Mexico Audit Force were to canvass voters to review voter registration data.

According to legislators, the canvassing is already under way. More than 60 residents of counties have contacted officials from state and local governments with concerns about their interactions with the canvassers.

V.A., EchoMail founder, was the author of the letter. Shiva Ayyadurai has been involved in conspiracy theories regarding the 2020 election and his own defeat in a Massachusetts state Senate election.

A request for comment was not immediately answered by Ayyadurai on Thursday.

Nearly a year after the 2020 general elections, the U.S. still struggles with bogus claims regarding Democrat Joe Biden’s win. From Arizona's Maricopa County, to Pennsylvania's Fulton County, ballot reviews were conducted.

The results of the votes cast in battleground states contested at the time by Donald Trump were reviewed by the Associated Press. They also found that there was not enough fraud to influence the outcome.

Trump, a Republican, along with his associates, have falsely claimed the voting systems or ballot tallies were manipulated in order to steal the election. These claims were rejected by both the Republican and Democratic national judges. Even Trump's ex-attorney general William Barr stated a month later that there was no evidence of widespread fraud which could have affected the outcome.

The committee's investigation comes weeks after Maggie Toulouse Oliver, a Democrat from New Mexico, stated that many Otero County residents were caught off guard by canvassers affiliated with the New Mexico Audit Force group. They claim to be county employees in some cases.

In January, the county commission approved a contract worth $49,750 for a countywide examination of election records and voter registration information related to the 2020 general elections. EchoMail was one of the contractors that Republican Arizona state legislators hired to review the 2020 Maricopa County election and prepare a report about ballot envelope images.

In September, the largest county in Arizona was closed for review. There was no evidence to support Trump's false claim of a stolen election. Nearly every finding of the contractors by county election found them to have faulty analysis, incorrect claims, misleading conclusions, and a poor understanding of federal election laws.

EchoMail must respond to the House Oversight Committee's March 31st letter and turn over all documents related to the New Mexico probe, according to the House Oversight Committee.

The letter stated that the Committee was investigating whether auditing and canvassing in New Mexico by your company illegally interfered with Americans' right of vote. It also said that disinformation about elections and intimidation were some of the reasons.