New Mexico: Voting Machine Vendors Supplied Bad List to Democrats

[EFerrari]

Bad Voter Lists May Have Botched New Mexico's Democratic Caucus

By Steven Rosenfeld, AlterNet
Posted on February 8, 2008,
http://www.alternet.org/story/76399/

Democratic party officials in New Mexico may have used an incomplete list of
registered voters on Super Tuesday -- prepared for the Secretary of State by
a private vendor -- causing nearly 13 percent of Democrats to find they were
not on precinct voter rolls when they showed up to choose a presidential
nominee.

As a result, the New Mexico Democratic Party is now in the process of
validating and counting more than 17,000 provisional ballots. That count
will likely determine who won the nation's closest Democratic nominating
contest so far in 2008. It is unclear whether the voter list that resulted
in so many provisional ballots -- or an updated list -- will be used to
verify, validate and count the 17,000 votes.

With 183 out of 184 precincts reporting, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) held a
lead of 1,092 votes -- 67,921 votes compared to 66,829 for Sen. Barack Obama
(D-IL), according to the Associated Press. That tally does not include the
provisional ballot count.

"The Democratic Party ran that election," said James Flores, spokesman for
Secretary of State Mary Herrera, a Democrat. "There is a (voter) list and it
is compiled by ES&S (Election Systems and Software). The Democratic Party
requested this list from the Secretary of State's office... There could be
hundreds of reasons why there are provisional ballots."

(Everybody that thinks their registration is good, PLEASE CHECK IT before November!)

[blm]

1. Bill Richardson has NOT shown strong stewardship of the party on election matters

in that state.

NM had serious atrocities in 2004 election that were deep-sixed, too.....quickly.

[EFerrari]

2. Well, suppressing the vote benefits Clinton.

:shrug:

[DJ13]

3. Voter suppression? Maybe to help his old boss?

Just sayin.......

[laconicsax]

11. The same way he was complicit in 2004?

Except that helped out * and his merry band of bad guys.

[duhneece]

35. It's not true that Bill suppressed a recount in 04

Our very Democratic Secretary of State (at the time) Rebecca Vigil-Giron's Election Director Denise Lamb had been elected President of the National Association of State Election Directors and both women had 'bought' the lies that the electronic voting machine manufacturers were telling. It is the job of the Secretary of State to make the call on recount; not the Governor's. The state's Democratic party would have howled if the Governor had tried to say the Secretary of State was wrong-
Fortunately, since then, we lobbied our legislators to demand voter verified paper ballots that could be audited.

[blm]

36. He didn't HAVE to say she was wrong. All he had to do was allow a recount

and NOT erase the machines as quickly as was done.

And leadership that succumbs to pressure of a 'howl' is not leadership or even ethical is it?

[Renew Deal]

4. What a nightmare!

I wonder how many people didn't get to vote at all.

[gateley]

5. K&R - nt

[mopinko]

6. damn! what the hell is the matter with these dems?

oh, yeah, nobody wants to be caught with their :tinfoilhat: on. i forgot. cuz that is so much more important than safeguarding people's votes.

[EFerrari]

10. We have to mount the biggest election protection effort ever --

starting in August. Because this sh!t is going to happen all over the swing states. I'm not kidding!

I'm not working a campaign this time, no matter who gets it. I'm networking with election protection people because the third time CANNOT be the charm. :grr:

[mopinko]

12. i hear ya. they are always mad at me that i work the polls on

election day, instead of gotv.
well, obama did practice election law. and teach it. i'm hoping he is going to show his stuff in la county. can't think of a bigger issue for worn out dems than someone who is going to ACTUALLY make sure their votes are counted.

[EFerrari]

14. Am I wrong or did he say that the machine fraud was not an issue

in his book? I don't read those books but have read other posters saying that.

And, I'm so over expecting politicians to do anything for our elections. If his campaign does, it will be icing. This year is going to be the Mother of All Election Stealing efforts. It's pretty much an art form by now.

[mopinko]

21. i don't know.

i have a hard time reading political books myself. i was pissed that he didn't have much to say about ohio, tho.

[TexasObserver]

7. It's INEXCUSABLE!!!

Stop the privatization. Stop the contracting out of government functions. Do everything related to elections in a completely transparent manner. This shit has got to stop.

[Thrill]

8. I begining to think Bush and crew stole NM in 04

[EFerrari]

9. They probably did. I've always thought there was some down ticket race

that Richardson didn't want anyone to look at, and so, he nixed a recount.

[blm]

28. Nixed a recount and ERASED machines as quickly as he could.

Heard he expected to be Hillary's VP.

[EFerrari]

29. One of us has to go back and look at the down ticket races.

Because there is where the payoff is.

[blm]

32. Hadn't heard that....but it is certainly plausible.

Hmmm.....I just remembered there's a DUer who knows NM politics really well as an insider, and the Richardson expected to be VP for 2008 came from her.

I am just drawing a blank right now on her handle. I'm sure it will come to me soon, and I can PM her.

[rox63]

16. I've thought that since 2004

There were a lot of irregularities in NM in '04.

[TexasObserver]

34. they definitely stole New Mexico in 04

They tried to steal the senate seats in Montana and Virginia in 2006, but they didn't steal enough votes!! They stole about 5% and needed to have stolen 6%.

[Adelante]

13. They might as well do the whole fucking thing over again

It's been nothing but a mess in NM.

[EFerrari]

15. Where is Richardson?

:shrug:

[Adelante]

17. Last I saw him

He was watching the game with the Big Dog.

[EFerrari]

22. That's what I thought.

:shrug:

[Quixote1818]

20. He said heads are going to roll on this however HE is the head of the Democratic party

in New Mexico. Ultimately he is responsible for a lot of this. He was off running for President instead of taking care of business.

[AtomicKitten]

18. This isn't the first time New Mexico has failed in an election.

[EFerrari]

24. We're going to see this sh!t where ever there is poverty, imho. n/t

[AtomicKitten]

26. It is an insidious form of bigotry going on in America today.

[Quixote1818]

19. Greg Palast was talking about this last night

He said it was due to Republicans screwing around trying throw Hispanic voters off the voter rolls.

[EFerrari]

23. I think that's right but it also seems to be powerful Democrats

having their way with the votes of poor people. Is there a clip somewhere? At Greg's site or something? He's all over this stuff, isn't he? :)

[Quixote1818]

30. He was on one of those late nigh Air America Radio shows

I can't remember which one. I think it was Clout with Richard Green

http://airamerica.com/clout/

[Pawel K]

25. This is bad but we are handling it correctly

Anyone that could not be confirmed to be registered that day got to fill out a provisional ballot. And all those ballots are being counted by hand, nobody is going to be left out which is why it is taking so long for us to declare a winner.

But I don't understand why we trust a private company to take care of our elections. 4 years later and nothing has changed.

[EFerrari]

27. The problem is if those ballots really are counted, they are counted

in secret.

There is no transparency.

[Quixote1818]

31. Yes, I would like to see Jimmy Carter come here and see what the hell

is going on. We need someone like him for this.

[blm]

33. Correction - EIGHT YEARS LATER. And I think it's entrenched power in the party blocking

the securing of the election process. Those who insinuated themselves into the party infrastructure in the 90s and who really answer to the establishment powerstructure in DC - and that means Republicans AND Democrats who serve POWER not party.

[Stevepol]

37. IMO ES&S is a criminal organization whose primary aim is to steal elections.