Posted on 11/04/2004 8:42:07 PM PST by CedarDave
County clerks waded through provisional ballots Thursday, working toward a final unofficial tally of New Mexico's election results.
The Associated Press tally with most absentee votes counted late Thursday had President Bush leading by 8,366 votes.
But there were at least 19,500 uncounted paper ballots— so-called provisional and in-lieu-of ballots— statewide, according to a survey Thursday of most of New Mexico's 33 county clerks by The Associated Press. Provisional ballots, required by the 2002 federal Help America Vote Act, allow people to vote even if their name isn't listed at the polling place. In-lieu-of ballots are used by voters who said they didn't get the absentee ballot they requested.
The largest number of uncounted ballots were in the state's most populous county, Bernalillo, with about 11,200 provisional ballots and about 1,800 in-lieu of ballots. Doña Ana County has more than 2,700 provisional ballots to qualify.
Bernalillo County Clerk Mary Herrera said election workers began checking provisional ballots Thursday to determine whether the person who cast the ballot was an eligible voter. Herrera said she should know how many of the provisionals are good by late Saturday. However, the ballots will not be counted until the Nov. 12 canvass, she said.
Many other counties planned to canvass results Thursday and today. The state canvassing board will certify statewide results Nov. 23.
President Bush captured New Mexico in Tuesday's election, with 50 percent of the vote to Kerry's 49 percent, according to an AP tally of unofficial results from all of New Mexico's county clerks.
The Secretary of State's Office was still compiling unofficial results from the counties. At one point Thursday afternoon, the secretary of state's Web site showed Kerry holding an 1,838-vote lead over Bush in New Mexico. Those results, however, did not include updated tallies from several counties.
For example, in heavily Republican Chaves County, the secretary of state reported 1,293 votes for Bush and 449 for Kerry. In fact, the county's unofficial ballot total was much higher: 14,748 votes for Bush and 6,716 for Kerry, according to Clerk Dave Kunko.
Ernest Ortega, a spokesman for the Secretary of State's Office, said the state's tally was slowed by the different manner in which counties reported results to the secretary of state. "They're fluid results, depending on how counties report their results to us," he said. Later Thursday, the Web site had been updated to show Bush ahead by 6,810 votes.
Copyright 2004, The Albuquerque Journal
Thanks for that info! Richardson better get thrown out of office in the next election before he really takes the state down!
Results for: Statewide Results
| Number Of Voters: | 730584 | |||
| Results as of: 11/5/2004 8:39:22 AM | Counties Reporting: | 4 | ||
| Candidate or Issue | Party | Votes | Percent | |
| PRESIDENT AND VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES | ||||
| JOHN F. KERRY and JOHN EDWARDS | Democratic | 353925 | 49.1% | |
| GEORGE W. BUSH and DICK CHENEY | Republican | 358925 | 49.8% | |
Good way to get blown away if the guy has been drinking and has a shotgun on the passenger seat.
Forget that site for now -- the total votes shown are 20,200 less than those shown on the ABQJournal/AP site, which has not changed since last night. Bush is still ahead by 8,366 on that site. The numbers will be changing all day today and as the article says, it won't be until next week until we know the final numbers. Just hope that the State Pubbies have their folks always on top of things so that no one can cheat (maybe put their own locks on the boxes, or have someone watching 24/7).
NM is very little state, but it is long way from place to place but still this should not be a problem. I think Gov Richards is a fool!
btt
Those provisional ballots would have to go over 71% for Kerry. If they did -- it would be prima facea evidence of voter fraud.
To New Mexicans, 82 mph on the Interstate isn't high speed. You were obstructing traffic and should have been ticketed.
That's assuming that all 19,000 are counted. An earlier article quoted a Pubbie lawyer as saying the standard for being counted is high (at least when the Pubs are looking over the clerk's shoulder) and 50% of them can be thrown out. What we will see here in NM is a repeat of 2000 Florida without the hanging chads -- arguments over whether signatures and addresses match, whether there is a record of registration, etc.
The Bubba does his best to court New Mexico vote mafia. Check out his presidential pardons during his last days in office. He pardoned two women from New Mexico who were convicted of vote fraud. RATS know the only way they can win is by cheating.
Yep that's about the figure they figure they'd need - once they knew what "W"s lead was , to try to skew the results - but I wonder if Richardson will dare carry thru this time - as he did last time in "finding" a box of ballots with JUST ENOUGH to switch over to Gore...
Preparing for the count, election worker Tom Garrity loads a dolly with boxes of provisional ballots and voter rosters Thursday at the Bernalillo County Voting Machine Warehouse in Albuquerque.
(Wonder how easy it would be for a Rat worker to slip some extra packets of provisional votes into the pile?)
New update from ABQ Journal/AP website: W is now up to 9,533 votes ahead of Kerry, an increase of 1,167 votes from earlier this morning. If he breaks 10,000, it will definitely be hard for Kerry to make up the difference in provisional votes (again provided the eagle-eye Pubbies are on the job 24/7 for the next 10 days).
I think it is over Cedar Dave. This is all a tempest in a teapot. Relax and enjoy the victory in New Mexico and Iowa.
http://network.ap.org/dynamic/files/specials/election_night_2004/us_map_govsenhouse/index.html?SITE=CSPANELN&SECTION=POLITICS
Red looks good on the map, doesn't it??
I was a newbie in 2000, but was posting breaking news updates every 30 minutes or so as the count went back and forth. This time, the Pubbies are not going to let them steal it.
(Yea -- just got our wireless internet service back up! Antenna was blown out of alignment earlier this week and service sucked - 435K speed now!)
Good point. I think it was the next day in Texas I decided to drive a little slower, not pass as many people, and stay in the right lane. There are so many people these days who will tailgate you even when you're passing people at 80+ mph. I also decided not to flip anyone off for the exact reason in your post. After those decisions I had a much more relaxing trip.
New update on ABQ/AP site, noon MST:
President Bush's lead is 8,539 votes, down 1,000 from my last post.
BUMP for new tagline
New update on ABQ/AP site, 3 p.m. MST:
President Bush's lead is 8,808 votes, up 269 from my last post.
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