Analilia Mejia's win with a nearly 20-point margin over Hathaway is significant, indicating strong voter support for Democrats in the current political climate.
The concerns follow a series of election-related actions by Gabbard, including her recent appearance during an FBI raid of a Fulton County, Georgia elections office that was at the center of President Donald Trump's false claims of election fraud in 2020. Her team seized voting machines in Puerto Rico last year, per Reuters reporting, and has since said the systems contain cybersecurity vulnerabilities.
President Trump's firing of IGs and removal of acting IGs, and then the subsequent appointment of some very political folks as IGs ... does raise the specter of a politicized inspector general community," one of those fired watchdogs, Mark Lee Greenblatt, told Nextgov/FCW.
The prosecution of SGO furthers their collective false narrative that President Trump did not actually lose the 2020 election. Attorneys for the company said the decision was prompted by Trump's demands to prosecute his perceived enemies and his 'mantra' that Smartmatic helped rig the 2020 U.S. presidential election won by Joe Biden.
