Posted on 11/14/2006 6:39:02 AM PST by CedarDave
Republicans cried foul Monday after Attorney General Patricia Madrid's office provided legal advice on how to count Bernalillo County ballots in her close 1st Congressional District race against Rep. Heather Wilson.
The legal advice could allow more provisional ballots to be counted in the ongoing tallying of votes— a possible advantage for Madrid, who trailed Wilson by 1,487 votes.
"The attorney general should never even have been asked to rule on this, because it's a clear conflict of interest," said Enrique Carlos Knell, spokesman for the four-term Republican congresswoman.
Assistant Attorney General Chris Coppin said he— not the Democratic attorney general and Wilson's challenger— gave the advice to the Secretary of State's Office concerning what constitutes a valid signature on the 2,698 provisional ballots yet to be tallied from the Nov. 7 general election.
Coppin said politics played no role in his advice. "We isolated the attorney general from giving the advice," Coppin said. "I've not talked to her about it, nor will I."
~~snip~~
Wilson claimed victory..., but Madrid has not conceded, and Democrats say the count of provisional ballots could close the margin ...if not overturn it.
The 2,698 provisional ballots are in addition to 1,058 "in-lieu-of" ballots that have not been tallied. The Bernalillo County Clerk's Office on Monday did not disclose how many provisional ballots had been qualified or accepted.
However, Democratic and Republican observers said a majority of provisional ballots were being qualified.
County Clerk Mary Herrera plans to report today the numbers of provisional and in-lieu-of ballots that have been qualified.
It was unclear Monday night how many provisional ballots might be at issue. But with Madrid trailing in the race and observers from both political parties agreeing that she will likely win a majority of the provisional votes, every qualified ballot could be vital.
(Excerpt) Read more at abqjournal.com ...
I dislike provisional ballots for just these reasons. A person can come in on election day, say they are qualified to vote and then are handed a ballot. It is up to the county clerk to verify legitimacy, and they tend to give the voter the benefit of the doubt. However, most every one believes that the majority of the these provisional ballots will be for Madrid because their supporters tend to be the ones who do not participate in the process by registering or going to their proper polling place. So we may be seeing the loss of this seat to the Democrats unless more ballots are disqualified.
I agree.
I really dislike the whole concept of provisional ballots or election day voter registration.
"I really dislike the whole concept of provisional ballots or election day voter registration."
I don't like it either but sometimes you have no choice. This year in our small township, there were people who were not listed that we KNEW lived and had voted in our township before this election. Somehow the idiots at the court house had removed their names! So then they had to vote by provisional ballot. We have to tell those people that their vote may not count depending on what happens when they check into the legality of the person voting in that precinct.
I would imagine that some, hopefully most, are cast for the reasons you cite above. However, in NM, you can cast a provisional ballot if you live anywhere in the county (not just your own precinct) and certify that you are qualified to vote (which is essentially election day registration by my reasoning).
Any time a party wants to prevent voters from having to identify themselves with supporting documents, as the Democrats do, and will go to court to prevent it, you know they intend to cheat.
It was the Democrats who insisted on electronic voting machines because paper ballots were too complicated for Democrat voters. There was an HBO documentary on how voting machines could be rigged and they said that is how Bush won in 2000. If the Democrats know how to rig voting machines you can bet your boots they did.
Democrats lie, rig polls, use the willing MSM as campaign tools, run on conservative principles, rig the voting process, and then when they squeak out a slim victory they claim it is a mandate for their leftist ideas.
Everywhere the left has gained power it has always been a small minority claiming more support than they have. But once they gain the levers of power it is very difficult to dislodge them.
The Assistant Attorney General works for and answers to the Attorney General. If the office and this AAG do not see the conflict of interest, and that the conflict still exists, they have no business holding a license to practice law.
Welcome to New Mexico.
Folks, Bill Richardson plans to be president. Who is going to stop him, besides Hillary?
manipuled = manipulated. And I did preview...need new glasses.
If you put it that way, I would agree with you.
That's never happened in my precinct...thankfully!
Sadly, so true. :>((
He will happily serve as her VP. He has worked with the Clintons before and he knows the drill. It was under his tenure as Energy Secretary that all our nuclear technology at Los Alamos and Sandia National Labs was given to China, along with six super computers that were declared surplus, some brand new, in order to use the information. He is one of "them", the left in our government.
I can see Madrid getting close to that.
Then in the past the lost/missing electronic ballot box would show up. This time, however, with the paper ballots and the Pubbies watching like a hawk, it is unlikely to happen. However, they are loading it on the front end by not disqualifying provisional ballots. The whole thing is if you're warm and can write your name, you can vote. Of course if you're dead and someone else can write you're name, you can vote too. And finally, there could be a tabulation error, though one of those has already been caught and factored in. Some day, I would like to have somebody take us through the entire provisional ballot issue. I'm not sure the reporters know, but the party has lawyers there on site to challenge shady doings. Sunday there was an afternoon meeting where supposedly everyone agreed on the rules. Hopefully we didn't cave and get something that will be to our detriment as the vote gets closer.
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