Posted on 03/19/2006 7:13:19 AM PST by SwinneySwitch
EDINBURG — The results from the March 7 Democratic primary are now official, but there are still some lingering questions over missing ballots and incorrect voter information.
Hidalgo County Democratic Chairman Juan Maldonado canvassed, or certified, the results from the primary Friday morning and announced the winner of each race. Much attention has circulated around the close county judge race between incumbent Ramon Garcia and declared winner Juan de Dios "J.D." Salinas, because only 300 votes separate the candidates.
Garcia has yet to concede, but he has not officially requested a recount or contested the election. If he wants a recount, Garcia must request one before 5 p.m. Monday.
But precinct chair and voting member of the party’s executive committee Lydia Caballero had several concerns with the canvassing, including a complaint she heard that 300 or so military members serving overseas who did not receive ballots.
Sgt. Eliazar Rodriguez, who is currently in Afghanistan, sent a letter dated March 15 to Caballero indicating several soldiers mailed in requests for absentee ballots, but did not receive any. When Rodriguez was on leave in November and in the Rio Grande Valley, he helped Garcia organize care packages for troops overseas.
"They were denied ballots," said Caballero, who also is the political liaison for America’s Last Patrol. She said she’s not supporting any candidate; she just wants correct information.
It’s also likely there are mistakes in tallying, she said, because it was the first primary election voters and workers used the electronic voting system.
Hidalgo County Elections Administrator Teresa Navarro was surprised at the allegation involving military members, saying this was the first she heard about the missing ballots. She said she personally sent about 1,000 applications for ballots to Afghanistan in October, but ultimately, her numbers indicate that 19 Republicans and eight Democrats actually voted in the primary.
She said there are still 21 outstanding overseas ballots that may count if received before Monday.
"Everyone is talking to everyone, but not to the elections administrator," said Navarro, adding she was in e-mail contact with Rodriguez since October 2005 and never heard of missing ballots. She said Caballero can’t prove anything and her numbers are hearsay.
In another issue, Caballero questioned some numbers that did not jive with the certified results. In Precinct 13, Lee Elementary School in Edinburg, Garcia’s campaign manager Manuel Medina said the elections Web site reported 235 people voted, but 570 signed in.
Also, he said, at Precinct 52 Canterbury Elementary School in Edinburg, Web site numbers showed more votes than voters.
Navarro said the discrepancies were clerical errors and that technology workers were correcting the information in the database Friday afternoon. She said a clerk manually entered about 300 names incorrectly on primary day.
"In an election that’s divided by so few votes, these clerical mistakes just glare out at you," Medina said. "The bottom line is there would be no surprise if we have mistakes. It’s the first time we used computers (to vote) in the county."
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Victoria Hirschberg covers Hidalgo County government and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach her at (956) 683-4466. For this and more on local stories, visit www.themonitor.com.
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...and Feingold, Clinton, Kerry, Pelosi etc. expect the Iraqi's to get it right in a matter of months.........
[Nearly 24] Hours later, Hidalgo County GOP has finals
Hidalgo County Elections Administrator Teresa Navarro said she felt the Republican Primary was disorganized, making it difficult to count votes Tuesday night. She decided to finish the bulk of the Democratic Primary before counting Republican votes.
Hidalgo County was the last county in Texas to report its results, Vallés-Pankratz said.
http://www.themonitor.com/SiteProcessor.cfm?Template=/GlobalTemplates/Details.cfm&StoryID=11953&Section=Local
Missing military ballots... isn't that always the case. How many illegals and dead folks voted?
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