December 5, 2020
UPDATED: Judge impounds Grant Count ballots at Republican request
Written by
Makayla Grijalva
on December 5, 2020
Two defeated Republicans, Grant County Commission District 5 candidate Tom Shelley and District 28 state Senate candidate James “Jimbo” Williams, filed a motion in District Court last week to impound Grant County’s general election ballots.
“It’s just a right, and both of our races were close,” Shelley told the Daily Press on Saturday. “It’s very expensive to pay the county clerk to do a recount — but we are just going to do a little audit, and this way is less expensive.”
Williams also filed a petition to impound ballots in Socorro County, which were also taken into custody by New Mexico State Police last week. While the court order to impound the ballots in Grant County did not include terms for the inspection of the ballots, the court order signed in Socorro County details that petitioners have the ability to inspect and duplicate the ballots and related election materials.