do I really have to say it???
Posted on 02/08/2008 5:15:12 PM PST by tcrlaf
The New Mexico Democratic Party caucus may be tainted by three ballot boxes that spent the night in the home of the Rio Arriba County party chair or the homes of other local election officials instead of being reported to the state party.
Those ballots still haven’t been counted, but they have been retrieved by the state party.
Several sources told me the ballot boxes spent the night at the home of Rio Arriba County Democratic Party Chair Theresa Martinez, whose state-lawmaker husband, Sen. Richard Martinez, endorsed Hillary Clinton.
But Richard Martinez told Santa Fe New Mexican reporter Kate Nash that the boxes actually spent the night in the homes of three polling-place managers. He gave Nash no explanation for why the results from those ballots weren’t reported to the state party last night and why they were instead kept overnight in officials’ homes.
“The site managers locked them and they kept them and they took them to my wife this morning,” Nash quoted Richard Martinez as saying.
State party officials and Theresa Martinez have not returned my calls seeking comment.
The three ballot boxes from Rio Arriba County and a fourth from Sandoval County account for the 2 percent of precincts that haven’t yet reported results from Tuesday’s caucus. With about 200 votes separating Clinton and Barack Obama, that’s huge. We’re talking about the ballots from half the polling places in Rio Arriba County.
I want to make sure this point is emphasized: Roughly half the votes from Rio Arriba County spent the night in the privacy of the home or homes of one or more election officials in boxes those officials may have had the ability to open. All the county party chair had to do last night to report the results was make a phone call. That never happened.
The ballot boxes were retrieved from Theresa Martinez by the state party this morning.
But there are valid concerns. Rio Arriba County has a history of election scandal.
After all, they were told that only "Neocons" steal elections, no matter how many DEMOCRATS go to prison for it...
do I really have to say it???
Say it ain't so!
It’s always Rio Arriba County!
CFA was not available for comment.*
*Private joke for 770 KOB listeners.
Like Lake County in Indiana, that does always seem to be the place these “Ballot Problems” creep up....
Rio Arriba County, the Chigago of the West?
Chigago, of course, should be Chicago!
BTT
What is the latest on this? Anyone been keeping up with it??
The question arises....were the ballots there over night or always there to be brought to light if needed?
Pre stashed ballots that could be used to influence an election after the fact seems very likely. The election officials would not want the matter left to chance and could have prepared fake ballots in real boxes in advance.
The action could have been a practice exercise to insure logistics andcommunications would be ready for 11/08
According to the news, that entire area is snowed in to the point of declared emergency.
.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.