New Mexico Supreme Court orders incumbent Republican state Rep. Dow back on the ballot
The New Mexico Supreme Court unanimously ordered Rep. Rebecca Dow back on the ballot, overturning a lower court ruling over how she submitted nominating petition signatures.
Supreme Court justice questioned whether attempt to keep Dow off ballot was a ‘gotcha’
Joshua Bowling, Source New Mexico
This article was originally published by Source New Mexico.
The New Mexico Supreme Court on Tuesday unanimously ruled that incumbent state Rep. Rebecca Dow, a Republican who represents a sweeping legislative district encompassing Truth or Consequences and Elephant Butte, should stay on the June 2 primary ballot.
Her candidacy had been in question since a state district court judge booted her from the ballot in early April. Democrat Tara Jaramillo, who briefly held Dow’s seat while the Republican unsuccessfully ran for governor, filed a challenge in court that alleged Dow improperly filed screenshots of signatures she gathered to make the ballot, rather than the physical nominating petition required under state law.
Dow quickly appealed the decision to the Supreme Court, which ruled in her favor just more than an hour after attorneys for Dow, Jaramillo, the Sierra County Clerk and the New Mexico Secretary of State presented their arguments. In court, Dow’s attorney argued that the screenshots contained the same information as the paper nominating petition would have, and that the dispute over formatting didn’t change the validity of the signatures she collected.
Joshua Bowling
As Dow waded through a crowd of supporters in the Supreme Court building’s narrow hallways, she reminded them that Tuesday’s victory was not final. While she’s running unopposed in the June 2 primary, she is set to face a write-in Democratic candidate in the Nov. 3 general election.
“This was never about me…it’s about whether the establishment can use their own broken system as a weapon against democracy and open elections,” Dow said from the steps of the Roundhouse shortly after the Supreme Court’s decision. “I’m holding a seat that they assume should be Democrat and are looking at technicalities to remove [me].”
Republican Party of New Mexico Chair Amy Barela in a statement lauded the Supreme Court ruling as a “victory for fairness, election integrity and the rule of law,” adding that the decision is a “win for every candidate.”
Dow had long argued that the issue at hand was — at worst — an issue of formatting. In court, her attorney Carter Harrison told Supreme Court justices that the state law spells out what “must be done — not what must happen if it’s not done perfectly” and argued that keeping her off the ballot would be a step too far.
In previous court filings, lawyers for the New Mexico Secretary of State asked the Supreme Court to keep Dow off the ballot because of the issues with her nominating paperwork. In a court hearing Tuesday morning, Secretary of State general counsel Peter Auh doubled down and said that “whatever Ms. Dow filed, it was not a nominating petition.”
“It’s simple enough to use the form that is prescribed by the Legislature,” Auh said. “Everybody does it. It’s not that difficult.”
The New Mexico Secretary of State’s office last week told Source NM it was going to mail dozens of ballots to military and overseas voters without Dow’s name, as her challenge was pending in court. A spokesperson did not immediately answer a call about whether that mailing did, in fact, happen.
While justices interrogated attorneys for each party from the bench, they noted that the challenge to Dow’s candidacy was not aimed at the validity of signatures she gathered.
“You didn’t challenge the nominating petition. You didn’t challenge a name on there. So it’s clear, you must concede these were valid nominees,” Justice David K. Thomson told Jaramillo’s attorney, former state lawmaker Daymon Ely. “It just seems like a gotcha.”
Joshua Bowling is a senior reporter for Source New Mexico. He's reported in New Mexico, where he broke stories of lavish spending at Western New Mexico University and more, since 2022.
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