Otero County Clerk Robyn Holmes selected for League of Women Voters of Southern New Mexico Award

Otero County Clerk Robyn Holmes of Alamogordo, NM, has been selected as the 2023 recipient of the Making Democracy Work Award from the League of Women Voters of Southern New Mexico (LWVSNM). The League represents the counties of Doña Ana, Otero, Sierra, Grant, Luna, Hidalgo, Lea and Eddy.

“Throughout the 2022 election cycle, Ms. Holmes exemplified what it means to contribute through action to strengthening our democracy,” said LWVNM Co-President Eileen VanWie. “The League gives her this award to honor her professionalism, honesty, and commitment to election processes that strengthen our country’s voting system.”

“Robyn Holmes defended our civil rights, justified the voting procedures, stood up for her staff, poll workers and poll judges, eloquently spoke about the inclusion of voters who need to vote absentee, and made us very proud,” former Alamogordo City Commissioner Nadia Sikes wrote.
She continued: “When the Secretary of State and the Attorney General absolved her office of any wrongdoing and concluded that she performed the elections correctly, many members of our community agreed that she is a hero.”

Robin Holmes gained state and national attention as Republican County Clerk sparing with her own County Commissioners concerning election integrity and the certification process.  She maintained decorum and presented fact based arguments in debate during Otero County Commission meetings especially with former Commissioner Couy Griffin.

Couy Griffin marched to the steps of the US Capitol on Jan. 6 in an attempt to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s win. Eighteen months later, it was his job to certify a different election.

The stakes were much smaller, but Griffin’s views hadn’t changed. Along with two other county commissioners in Otero County, a largely Republican area on the Mexican border in New Mexico, he refused to certify the June 2022 primary, saying he didn’t trust the voting machines.

“I didn’t feel like they were giving us a true and accurate scale of the vote,” he said in an interview.

But the commissioners had no legitimate evidence to cite, said Robyn Holmes, the Republican county clerk who supervises local elections. “We had no problems,” she said. “In all of our voting convenience centers; in our early voting, absentee voting — all of our numbers matched perfectly.”

Otero County New Mexico Commissioners then allowed a group called New Mexico Audit Force and an ally is Otero County’s most famous commissioner — Republican Couy Griffin into the county again putting Mrs. Holmes in a defensive position concerning voting integrity.

To be clear, not everyone liked what was going on and the attacks on Mrs Holmes became inflamed yet she maintained her professionalism.

Republican Otero County Clerk Robyn Holmes was not a fan of the Audit Force process.

“I’ve been against this from the beginning,” Holmes said of the canvassing during the continuing pressure from Mr. Griffin March of 2022 , “Our elections are audited three times.”

On Griffin, Holmes was not shy sharing her opinion with the press at the time.“I think that if you’ve ever heard about one of our commissioners, he likes being in the limelight. He thinks Trump won and if he didn’t it’s a conspiracy.”

If this debate around the need for additional audits sounds familiar, it’s because the disagreement in Otero over whether to verify the 2020 results yet again is reminiscent of the face off between former President Donald Trump and his followers who distrusted the results and Republican elections officials who defended them in battleground states like Georgia.

Otero County was no battleground, though. And the so-called audit was not about overturning the 2020. No, what the canvassing was about was suspicion and conspiracy talk that something “sinister and shady might have happened in Otero County” in 2020 and New Mexico Audit Force was there to uncover it.

Nothing was found, and of course Otero County Clerk Robyn Holmes was further vindicated, with a clean bill of health, and NO issues with her election results. 

League of Women’s Voter:

In addition to nominating the County Clerk, Nadia Sikes points out that an enthusiastic group of women and men have organized a League of Women Voters unit for Otero County to support voting rights, voter education and candidate forums going forward.

Unit members recently launched monthly meetings and they will be available to discuss their goals with the public at the Alamogordo Earth Day event on April 29 at the Alameda Park Zoo.

New members can also contact Claudia Powell at claudia@tularosa.net for more information about the new unit.

Holmes was honored during the LWVSNM general meeting in Las Cruces on Saturday, February 11, three days prior to the 103rd anniversary of the creation of the League of Women Voters on Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14, 1920.

The League also plans to recognize Holmes in Alamogordo at the Board of Otero County Commissioners meeting on March 9. She will also receive a $250 cash award from the League of Southern New Mexico.

The League of Women Voters is a nonpartisan, grassroots organization working to protect and expand voting rights and ensure everyone is represented in America’s democracy. They are recognized as a nonpartisan force to empower voters and defend democracy through advocacy, education, and litigation, at the local, state, and national levels.

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