Posted on 11/12/2004 7:00:46 AM PST by CedarDave
Today is the deadline for counties to complete their canvass of last week's election, and the clerk of the most populous county in the state aims to meet that deadline. "I'm optimistic," Clerk Mary Herrera said. "If I have to be here 24 hours a day by myself entering (data), I'm going to do it."
About 85 percent of the canvassing process was completed as of Thursday afternoon, county officials estimated. The hand tally of provisional ballots was expected to be done by this morning. Other remaining work included data entry and running reports on election results.
The county canvassing board, which is made up of county commissioners, is scheduled to meet at 3:30 p.m. today to certify the results. Should more time be needed, Herrera said she would ask the board to recess the meeting and return later in the day when the results were done.
-snip-
Despite the delay in Bernalillo County, President Bush is considered to have won New Mexico with 50 percent of the vote compared with Sen. John Kerry's 49 percent. The gap is more than 8,000 votes.
-snip-
With the canvass process reaching an end, Herrera praised her election workers, who have been putting in long days and nights, some leaving the warehouse like "zombies." "I am so proud of them. They are so dedicated," she said. It wasn't easy for them to work under the eyes of political party observers for days, she said. "They said it was very tough on them being watched and questioned over their shoulder," she said. "Nobody wants to work that way."
(Excerpt) Read more at abqjournal.com ...
Notice the last paragraph. Without election observers, it would have been easy to add or remove provisional ballots or otherwise perform funny-business with the vote totals, not that any NM elected Democrat would ever do such a thing.
"They said it was very tough on them being watched and questioned over their shoulder," she said. "Nobody wants to work that way."
I say get used to it.
Richardson couldn't deliver for Kerry. Too bad, so saaaad.
What does this do to the final split overall? 53/47, 52/48,...?
Final split will either be 50-49 or 49-49 with the President X-tenths of a percentage point ahead. Current split is 49.99% to 48.88%.
http://network.ap.org/dynamic/files/elections/2004/general/by_state/pres_sen_gov/NM.html?SITE=NMALJELN&SECTION=POLITICS
Oh, Boy.
More like, "I hope to have 24 hours by myself so I can fix this election."
Thank goodnes close counts only in Horeshoes and Nuclear weapons......
This was a tryout for Richardson for the '08 Dem nomination. He failed and it is good to see that the Dem Vote Fraud Scheme did not work in NM.
BTTT
I worry that magically they will find just enough for Kerry today and then finalize the counts with no time for a review. They might be trying to run the clock down for a field goal as time expires and no chance for a the other team to get the ball back.
A relative of mine lives in NM and said Richardson had promised Kerry that he would win NM (by hook or crook).
This is a big black mark against Richardson who has President or Veep aspirations. Richardson is a big skirt chaser to boot.
Bush must have won the state by 5% but the Dems could only manufacture so many votes. I was in parts of the state before the election and lots of Repubs had lots of Bush signs.
In Lea County, President Bush won 79% to 20%. I'm sure his visit here on October 11 where 17,000 showed up had something to do with it. BTW, the total number of votes cast in the county was slightly over 18,000.
My nephew and his wife and little kids went to that and had a great time.
NM cannot quite seem to get it right.
Horeshoes - one of my favorite games :)
Nuclear Weapons! One of my favorite Deterrants! (8^)>
Just an afternoon update (as if anyone cares after the excitement of the Scott Peterson trial [yawn]).
Nothing to report as of this hour. Numbers on both the ABQJournal/AP and SOS sites are the same as earlier today.
http://www.abqtrib.com/archives/news04/111204_news_vote1.shtmlThere were no cheers at the end when Bernalillo County's election canvass was declared over this morning. Of the original 120 workers who started at 8 a.m. Thursday, 15 survived an all-day, all-night session to the end.
At 9:30 a.m. today, they began folding chairs and breaking down tables. At 9:43 a.m., Elections Bureau Administrator Jaime Diaz declared the canvass complete.
"The canvass here is done. It's all done," Diaz said.
The bleary-eyed workers gathered up empty food bags and bottles and trudged to their cars.
"These workers were real troopers. They knew we had a job to get done, and we grouped together and we got it done," Diaz said.
Bernalillo County Clerk Mary Herrera said she would not release the final tallies until after the County Commission meets at 3:30 p.m. today to certify the canvass.
The last provisional ballot was counted late Thursday afternoon, and after that, the crew had to enter numbers from individual tally sheets into the computer system, a process that turned into a night-long marathon of keyboarding and double-checking data.
"Meanwhile, New Mexico Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron says one county, Cibola, may not make the midnight Friday deadline for turning in certified votes to the Secretary of State’s office. Vigil-Giron says she’ll probably give the county an extension."
So, lots of Navajo votes in Cibola right? When WILL we get a final tally?
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