The political aspirations of former “DREAMer” (illegal alien) and far-left New Mexico Senate hopeful Cindy Nava could be derailed by a legal challenge questioning the validity of her ballot qualification petitions. The challenge, spearheaded by Audrey Trujillo, a Republican contender for the State Senate District 9 seat, along with two prominent local Democrats, County Commissioner Katherine Bruc, and former State Sen. John Sapien, hinges on a clerical error in Nava’s petition forms.
The crux of the dispute lies in the petition forms used by Nava, a Democrat from Bernalillo, which incorrectly listed her address as being in Bernalillo County rather than the correct Sandoval County due to a mix-up between her town’s name and the similarly named neighboring county.
Sandra Wechsler, Nava’s campaign manager, expressed disappointment over the challenge, highlighting the enthusiasm and support Nava has garnered. “Over 250 Democratic voters in Senate District 9 signed petitions to put Cindy’s name on the ballot,” Wechsler told the Sandoval Signpost.
The lawsuit’s proponents argue that the law is unambiguous regarding such errors, stating that petitions with incorrect address information must be invalidated.
Nava had surpassed the requirement of garnering signatures from 3% of District 9’s registered Democratic voters, submitting over 250 signatures to the county clerk. The confusion arose from the paper and online nominating petition’s format, which separates the candidate’s street address and county of residence, leading to the inadvertent listing of “Bernalillo” in the county section.
State regulations are clear that any discrepancies in the required information on a nominating petition, including the candidate’s address, render the petition and all its signatures invalid. The law also penalizes the circulation of petitions that fail to accurately display essential details about the candidate and the office sought.
The lawsuit seeks to disqualify Nava from the upcoming June 4 Democrat primary, leaving Heather Balas as the sole Democratic candidate to face Trujillo in the November general election. This development follows the announcement by current Democratic State Sen. Brenda McKenna that she would not seek re-election, with McKenna having endorsed Nava as her preferred successor.
The legal challenge poses a significant dilemma, balancing the technicalities of election law against the expressed will of voters who supported Nava.
The law must be followed and Nava disqualified as a candidate. Maggie will probably disregard the law and allow Nava to run since her name is followed by the letter D, just as Maggie allows uncertified voting machines to continue to be used in NM elections.
My thoughts exactly. Any Republican or Independent would be booted already.
Yeah so 250 people are disenfranchised Plus Miss Nala herself. Put that up against 110K and disregard that those people are disenfranchised because Little Miss former Dreamer can’t do her own paperwork and make sure that the stuff is done correctly.
Grannie you are exactly right!
If you can’t follow the election guidelines how are you going to lead that district. The candidate is the one that is responsible. Kick her of the ballot.
I thought in order to represent the citizens, one must be a citizen…..
It is wrong to have anything an illegal (non citizen) effect a US citizen. In California they count illegals in the census which allows CA to have more representation which affect citizens in other states by giving them less representation in DC. Does the NM marxists in Santa Fe want illegals to have more rights than US citizens. How do we allow illegal to run for public office, it is just shameful how the marxist punish citizens for things illegal get away with. Cindy Nava should be deported to where ever she came from. I am for US citizens only to have a say in US government issues. It is We the People meaning US citizens. We have fallen so far.
Agreed! If she is illegal she should NOT be allowed to run for office; she should be dealt with as a criminal.
The Democrat Secretary of State has done some corrupt stuff in the past. This has kept qualifying third political parties from being on the ballot. The Constitution Party of New Mexico had gathered 2-1/2 times more signatures to get a candidate on the ballot. To eliminate third parties, they disqualified more than half of the signatures. By the time it went to court, it was too late to get the candidate on the ballot so he became a write in candidate.
There is another Republican running in this race. There is a primary. Frida Susana Vasquez is also running for Senate district 9.
New Mexico needs to clean out the voter rolls first. Then follow all process. This candidate does not qualify. New Mexico needs to always follow the New Mexico Constitution!