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

[mod mom]

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."

-snip
http://www.alternet.org/story/76399/

[hedda_foil]

1. ES&S compiles their voter list???? OMG, this is inexcusable! nt

[Bluestar]

2. This article calls it a "caucus" Is it a caucus or a primary election?

Does anyone know?

[TygrBright]

3. It's a primary. It's called a "caucus" because NM state law...

...sets June as our official primary date. So in order to get in early (because after all, our thirty-nine delegates might make ALL THE DIFFERENCE!!!!!!!) the NM Democratic Party had to call it a "caucus," and promise that delegates wouldn't be *officially* allocated until after the primary date.

And of course it's taking this long to count ballots. This is New Mexico, after all. What's your hurry? <---------state motto

helpfully,
Bright

[Bluestar]

4. Thanks! Very enlightening

[rumpel]

5. I'd say

voter database everywhere needs to be scrutinized -

it is part of HAVA, and hence everyone danced to the sales pitches of those "vendors".

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

6. and the Clintons were watching the ball game with Richardson that day

and gee, remember Bill Richardson having the 04 election results erased?

[maryallen]

7. During Presidential Election 2004, Democrats begged Richardson ...

to support a RE-COUNT of the vote in New Mexico and he REFUSED.

Wonder why?

[troubleinwinter]

8. I remember with blinding clarity. I could not even consider his candidacy because of it.