Posted on 11/09/2004 6:58:35 AM PST by CedarDave
SANTA FE— Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron on Monday asked the state Supreme Court to set aside two recent court rulings that allow the disclosure of information about provisional ballots cast in last week's general election. "I need uniformity for the state," Vigil-Giron said at a news conference.
The petition was filed Monday and seeks a court order vacating the rulings of District Judges Robert Robles of Doña Ana County and Louis McDonald, who issued the Sandoval County court order. It also asks the court to stay the rulings until it makes a final decision. The court has not scheduled a hearing on the petition. Vigil-Giron said she does not expect a court ruling to have an impact on the counting of provisional ballots outside Doña Ana and Sandoval counties.
Vigil-Giron's petition has not delayed counting in either county. Doña Ana County election workers were expected to begin the final processing of the county's roughly 2,700 provisional ballots today. And Sandoval County election officials looked at more than 320 of the county's 734 provisional ballots on Monday. About a third were disqualified for a variety of reasons but mainly because the voter was not registered or they lacked the proper signatures.
Vigil-Giron said court rulings last week on the certification of provisional ballots in Doña Ana and Sandoval counties violated state and federal laws. Those laws restrict information about provisional ballots to voters who cast those ballots. Provisional ballots are emergency paper ballots given to voters whose names do not appear on voting rosters at polling places or whose eligibility is otherwise in question. <
Robles ruled Friday that Doña Ana County Clerk Rita Torres must allow political party watchers to observe provisional ballots being processed. Robles also ruled that Canvassing Board representatives must announce the name and address of each voter who cast a provisional ballot along with the reason ballots are rejected or counted.
Robles' ruling came in response to a temporary restraining order filed Friday by the local Republican Party. Republican watchers were removed for three hours from the county Bureau of Elections last Thursday after complaints they disrupted election workers who were sorting provisional ballots into two piles— those with names on registered voter rolls and those not named on the rolls. By late Thursday afternoon, partisan watchers were allowed to resume observing workers as they processed the county's provisional ballots. Democratic and Republican officials also observed the audit of the county's election day, early and absentee ballots Saturday and Sunday, with a State Police officer present.
Torres said Vigil-Giron's office advised her to proceed with the count of provisional ballots pending a final decision from the Supreme Court. The appeal, Torres said Monday, "won't cause a delay as it is."
Secretary's concerns
The Doña Ana County Board of Commissioners, acting as the Canvassing Board, was scheduled to certify election results at a meeting today, but county clerks have until Friday, Nov. 12, to submit final unofficial results to the Secretary of State's Office.
In Sandoval County, McDonald ruled that challengers representing each candidate and the Democratic and Republican parties would be able to view information on the outside envelope of provisional ballots and challenge such ballots as discrepancies are found.
While Vigil-Giron has said names and addresses of voters who cast provisional ballots can be disclosed, she expressed concern Monday about other personal information, such as voters' Social Security numbers and dates of birth, being made public. They also appear on the outside envelope. Vigil-Giron also said she has asked lawyers from the Attorney General's Office to analyze both court rulings and begin working on a uniform statewide method of reviewing provisional ballots.
State law requires county canvassing boards to send their general election results to Vigil-Giron by Friday. The State Canvassing Board is scheduled to certify statewide election results on Nov. 23. In the future, Vigil-Giron said she plans to take a more aggressive approach to educating the public and candidates about how election officials tally votes. "I'm concerned that I have not done enough to educate the voters of our state, the elected officials of our state, who obviously are not knowledgeable of the process for election counts and canvassing," Vigil-Giron said.
Complaints
Meanwhile, Torres' critics in Doña Ana County continued a campaign calling into question the count's fairness but without asserting specific types of fraud. Last Thursday, a barrage of anonymous, automated phone messages sent to scores of local residents asserted that "Torres is trying to close the final vote counting from the public and the press." The ad continued: "What does Rita have to hide?"
At noon Monday, 14 people gathered in front of the clerk's office urged passing motorists to honk in protest of "perceived election fraud," said one of the protest's key organizers, Ron Nesler. The main complaint, Nesler said, was Torres' temporary lockout of partisan watchers last week. "We feel like county government is very, very corrupt and this latest incident with the County Clerk's Office is the last straw," Nesler said.
One of the motorists who drove by honking as she pulled into the county courthouse parking lot was Torres herself. "I wanted them to get the hell out of the way," Torres explained later. "I think they're a bunch of idiots."
Former state senator Harold "Chub" Foreman, a Republican, said he considered the slow pace of the Doña Ana County count a delaying tactic. But Vigil-Giron said that New Mexico, like every other state in the nation, is still undertaking the time-consuming process of counting provisional ballots. "If quicker results in close races are the desire of the people, New Mexico's laws will have to change, and county clerks statewide will have to receive the equipment and resources necessary to streamline the process," Vigil-Giron said.
State Bureau of Elections Director Denise Lamb said she had heard of no reports of fraud in Doña Ana County. "If people are going to protest every time we count provisional ballots in this way, we will never have another election that is not protested," Lamb said.
Copyright 2004 Albuquerque Journal
As of this morning at the time of posting, President Bush leads by 8,273 votes (still have those two missing precincts out there!). The most up to date results can be found below. I caution going to the NM SOS office because their results fluctuate (votes posted, lost and posted again as they update counties).
Flashbacks of FReepers storming the star chamber.
When I went to the site you linked there was an ad at the bottom for Kerry bumper stickers and t-shirts. Isn't that a government site? And if so I wonder how they can heve an ad for either candidate.
Does any of this give us a clue as to what happened on election night when 28,000 unanswered Kerry votes materialized out of thin air just as the networks were about to call the state seeing there was a 30,000 vote lead for Bush with 99% of the vote counted?
The link takes you to a newspaper, The Albuquerque Journal.
That's the way the democrat machine operates. During 2000 the President had won NM by about 200 votes and some precinct "found" 500 votes for Gore that had been entered incorrectly. Of course, by then the Florida fiasco was in full uproar and it was allowed to stand. I think Algore won NM by about 300 votes. If I'm am wrong about this someone from NM please post a correction.
OOPS My coffee hasn't kicked in yet and I had narrow vision and missed that it was a paper instead of the official site. I stand corrected and I apologize.
I am suspicious.
Can't specifically claim fraud, but the situation doesn't pass the "smell test" ....
Democrats counting and sorting ballots (by hand) AND SELECTING WHICH BALLOTS ARE TO BE COUNTED without observation by honest (republican) observers IS fraud.
Well, they aren't going to get away with that crap in OH. In spite of Bob Taft's weakness, Ken Blackwell (SoS) won't put up with any nonsense. And the sentries on the ground here won't let them, either.
My gut feeling is that Richardson probably doesn't want to follow through with a full scale fraud this time and give his state to Bush, because it doesn't matter. And if this does happen, there will be even more of an outcry for an investigation into New Mexico voter fraud, and voter fraud nationally. This works against having the same corrupt system in place for Hillary and future Dems. After all, the Republicans didn't press for changes after 2000, and we all were sweating out voter fraud in 2004 as a result.
I'd really like to know which candidate was chosen on those disqualified ballots. I think We The People have a right to know.
True that it doesn't matter in the overall decision if Richardson flips NM to Kerry. That's why I say if he does it at all it will just be for spite, plus a personal satisfaction of "delivering" (fraud and all) "his" state to Kerry.
I saw the lady in charge of the DONA ANA vote counting on the News last night.....LET me just say...VOTER FRAUD GALORE! A very dishonest WITCH! She is the one who booted the pubs out because they were disturbing those that were counting the votes....HMMMMMMM why were they up in arms, WERE they seeing something fishy going on?! If the outcome turns to sKerry, I hope the pubs will take it to court! OBTW, the DONA ANA witch said that by today they should have a verified count! Keep your eyes open!
More info on the provisional ballot issue on the NM local board, here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/profiles?location=79
this smells of coverup. the fraud probably happened on election day. They're probably shredding the evidence.
I think it does still matter. If they can give the state to Kerry, it will make Bush's victory look smaller and more questionable. They would of course, say that the state was taken from Bush and given to Kerry because of Republican election fraud.
Also a kerry victory would make Richardson look better, and help him be a power broker, if not a candidate, in 2008.
I was supposed to be at the Dona Ana courthouse today to serve as a republican watcher as they canvassed the provisional ballots, but I was told nevermind, they are still in a meeting to determine if watchers are legal. SOS Vigil is pulling out all the legal stops to hand this state to Kerry.
So they don't believe in an open ballot count. Stalin tactics.
Thank you for fighting on the frontlines for us disabled Pubbies who can only cheer you and the Republican troops on. It's a nice feeling knowing folks like you are looking after our interests.
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