Sunland Park Election Still On

The Sunland Park municipal election will go on as scheduled.

Judge Susan Riedel denied a motion to suspend the election Friday afternoon. District Attorney Amy Orlando filed the motion after going through the findings from Secretary of State Dianna Duran’s investigation. Duran said she received complaints about absentee ballots and alleged voter fraud.

After hearing arguments from Orlando and Frank Coppler, Sunland Park City Attorney, Riedel ruled the state did not have enough evidence to meet the standard required by state law, and there are still actions county officials can take to make the election run smoothly.

According to the 57-page motion, the investigation turned up evidence of voter fraud cases where people were voting from Texas and voting more than once.

“In 19 years of being a prosecutor that we’ve never had the evidence up front of election fraud, but we have evidence, in fact, that six people have voted that live in Texas,” Orlando said Friday at a news conference at Las Cruces City Hall.

Orlando said there could be between 15 and 20 more cases of people voting from Texas.

The report states 13 people were registered to vote using the home address of Silvia Gomez, the city’s senior center director. One of those people was Jesus Dario Hernandez, of El Paso, the city’s public works director, who is wanted by police for allegedly tampering with evidence in an extortion case involving a controversial tape.

The document also alleges that mayoral candidate Daniel Salinas and City Manager Jaime Aguilera stole a box of 500 absentee ballots. Orlando said on the first day of absentee voting, 300 absentee ballots were turned in.

Salinas and Aguilera are charged with extortion and tampering with evidence after being accused of telling mayoral candidate Gerardo Hernandez to drop out of the race or they’d release a video of Hernandez with a topless woman. Orlando said the actions of the four city employees involved with that case “evidence a concerted, calculated and deliberate plan to undermine the integrity of the election.”

Gerardo Hernandez was at the news conference with a group of his supporters. He told ABC-7 he trusts the judge’s decision.

“I trust the justice of the United States of America, and if a competent judge says that’s what it is, I accept it,” Hernandez said.

However, Gerardo Hernandez said if Salinas wins the election Tuesday, he will appeal the judge’s decision.

If Salinas does win, he faces his own dilemma. As part of the conditions for his release from jail, Salinas is not allowed to enter any Sunland Park city buildings or make contact with any city employees or anyone who could be involved in the case.

Orlando said the criminal investigation of the election is ongoing, and the state is going to press charges against anyone who has committed voter fraud. That’s a fourth degree felony, and if convicted, a person can face up to 18 months in prison.

Orlando said the county will have officials at the election on Tuesday to ensure it is run fairly and properly. As for the findings of the investigation, Orlando said the ballots already submitted by people from outside of Sunland Park cannot be identified and disqualified, so they will count in the end.

“We try and make sure it goes forward on Tuesday as fairly as what we can do. We can’t fix what has already happened, unfortunately,” Orlando said.