Four years after Republican Vickie Marquardt refused to certify an election in Otero County, New Mexico, she isn’t ruling out doing it again this fall.
Marquardt was one of the three Republican county commissioners who unanimously refused to certify the 2022 primary election results, citing debunked conspiracy theories about voting machines.
But with the 2026 midterms fast approaching, Marquardt still isn’t convinced certification should be automatic.
Should other officials like Marquardt refuse to certify in the days and weeks following Election Day, they could throw the midterms into chaos and undermine faith in the outcome — a serious danger at a time when Trump has launched a whole-government attack on elections.
A single county official cannot simply overturn an election by refusing to certify it. But since 2020, certification has increasingly become a tool for fringe local officials to delay results, force state intervention and cast doubt on votes they are legally required to finalize.
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