In a split vote Luna County Commissioners decided to certify the 2022 General Election results. Commissioners John Sweetser and Linda Smrkovsky voted in favor of, and Commissioner Barbara Reedy voted against certification. Reedy voted against certifying after hearing a public presentation from private citizen Leslie Bronken that questioned the accuracy of the certification results.

Bronken asked the Luna County Board of County Commissioners to delay certification until the commissioners had a chance to meet with the county clerk to review records and determine if there were any errors or omissions in the certification.

Bronken pointed out that the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), a Division of Homeland Security had released a statement on 11/9/2022 that no votes/records were deleted by the "election system." The election system is the equipment and software used the manage the voter database and elections system. The CISA statement did not mention humans deleting records.

Bronken presented detailed evidence that eight rejected absentee ballot requests had been deleted. These requests all were received over the internet. The records of another 32 absentee ballots that were mailed to voters were also deleted from the election database records. The evidence included the voter ID numbers, voter last names, and other related election records, plus the dates the data was deleted.

County Clerk Berenda McWright informed the Commissioners that she had no knowledge of the issue and that all ballots were counted.

Evidence of a deleted record in the 2022 primary was brought to McWright's attention during the early voting period. McWright told Bronken at that time that no one in her office had deleted that record and the Secretary of State had informed her that it was a "computer glitch." McWright also stated her office would never have found a deleted record.

After the election and before certification the county clerk's office, in part, has to reconcile all absentee and in person ballots issued. How many ballots were issued, how many were voided, how many cast, how many counted by machine, how many by hand, how many ballots were not counted (for cause), etc.

The only records discovered deleted as of the date of certification were related to absentee ballots. One group of records related to requests for an absentee ballot that was received electronically over the internet. These requests were mostly duplicate requests, which were deleted after the duplicate request was rejected. Data was presented from previous elections that shows that deleting duplicate records is not normal procedure.

New Mexico statutes are clear that when a federal candidate is on the ballot, all records related to elections must be retained for 22 months after the close of the election.

The daily records received are similar to a chain of custody for ballots. A lot of data is tracked, but the relevant data is outlined below:

NORMAL CUSTODY CHAIN IN NMSOS RECORDS
• Date ballot requested (and ballot type)
• Status of request (approved or rejected)
• Date ballot mailed (if absentee)
• Date ballot printed (if in person)
• Date ballot cast (if in person)
• Date ballot returned (if absentee) (Ballot bar code scanned to enter into the computer system)

PROBLEM OUTLINED IN THE REPORT
RELATES ONLY TO ABSENTEE BALLOTS
CUSTODY CHAIN BROKEN IN 2022 GENERAL
• Date absentee ballot requested (and source of request)
• Status (absentee request approved or rejected)
• Reason absentee ballot rejected (if rejected) (ballot not mailed)
• Date absentee ballot mailed (if approved)
• ENTIRE CHAIN OF CUSTODY DELETED, including voter name, ID, address, voting districts and precincts, etc.
• Absentee ballot returned via mail, in person, or ballot drop box
• Attempt to scan/enter the returned ballot into the voter database would fail because the computer system would indicate the ballot was never issued.

 Two voters whose records were deleted were interviewed. They both confirmed they had requested and received the absentee ballots, filled them out and mailed them to the county clerk from the Deming Post Office. There is no record of those ballots being received prior to the day their records were completely deleted. It is unknown if these two voters, or any of the other voters were disenfranchised.

It is unknown what happened to the physical ballots that were returned. It is unknown if they were counted or if they treated as counterfeit ballots or discarded.

Bronken explained that the bulk of the voters whose records were deleted were registered Democrats.

The outcome of this election would not have changed. The only thing that might have changed if these ballots were not counted, is there may have been more votes for Democratic candidates than indicated, and that might have triggered more automatic recounts.

Bronken feels the election results should not have been certified until the commissioners learned what happened to the ballots that were deleted from the system, determine which ballots were returned by the voters, and how the county clerk's office handled counting them, and more importantly, if the election certification form was accurate.

"I don't know who deleted these voter records. It could be an employee at the state or local level, or it could be foreign election interference via hacking," Bronken said. "If this happened in our small county, it could be happening is larger communities and change election results."
Bronken feels Homeland Security should investigate what happened.

In an unprecedented move, the governors of fourteen states, including New Mexico, called out the cyber division of the National Guard to protect the 2022 election on election day. The voter records and ballot chain of custody in question in Luna County were deleted prior to the National Guard's involvement.

—Leslie Bronken