False election claims overwhelm local efforts to push back

By MORGAN LEE
Associated Press

ESTANCIA, N.M. (AP) — Republican commissioners in one rural New Mexico county have tried everything they can think of to persuade voters that their elections are secure. But none of it seems to be working. They agreed to hand count ballots from the primary election, allowed the public to observe security testing of ballot machines and tasked their county manager with making sure those efforts ran smoothly. Still, many voters in New Mexico’s Torrance County don’t trust voting machines or election results. Such conspiracy-fueled skepticism, fueled by former President Donald Trump and his allies, persists in rural areas across the U.S., And it suggests many Americans may not trust results of the upcoming midterm elections.