Posted on 11/13/2004 1:27:23 PM PST by CedarDave
Bernalillo County commissioners agreed to certify election results Friday, 10 days after Election Day, despite concerns that hundreds of ballots were thrown out on a technicality.
According to the final tally, John Kerry widened his lead in Bernalillo County by about 1,400 votes. The county's tally now shows Kerry with 132,404 votes to President Bush's 121,610.
But the president retains a statewide lead of 6,120 votes in an Associated Press unofficial tally late Friday that did not include final numbers from a few other counties.
Gilbert Gallegos, a spokesman for Gov. Bill Richardson, said the governor wants to look at overhauling the state's election system and is open to the idea of requiring more voters to show identification at polling places. Now, the only people who must show ID are those who registered to vote by mail and are voting for the first time.
"The governor wants uniform statewide standards to prevent so many ballots from being disqualified in the future because of technicalities," Gallegos said. "Republicans and Democrats deserve confidence in the system."
Results remain unofficial until the State Canvassing Board— made up of the governor, the chief justice of the New Mexico Supreme Court and the secretary of state— certifies them on Nov. 23.
-snip-
Most of New Mexico's counties had finished their canvasses by Friday. But in Doña Ana County, the election canvass continues. Dogged by new court-ordered procedures and burdened by an unprecedented number of provisional ballots, Elections Supervisor Mari Langford told county commissioners that workers expect to finish over the weekend. Vigil-Giron said that does not pose a problem. Doña Ana County commissioners scheduled a meeting to certify results at 3 p.m. Tuesday.
(Excerpt) Read more at abqjournal.com ...
Dona Ana County's delay is still somewhat troublesome because they have 2,700 provisional votes that will cut into the President's lead but won't overtake it. That is the county where the clerk threw out the Pubbie poll watchers and the DA rounded up sheriff's officers and state police to get them back in. It is also one of the counties most suspected of fraud. Several reports on FR have mentioned Texans from El Paso coming up to vote in NM, so that may be where the glut of provisional ballots comes from.
No doubt the entire NM electoral system needs to be revamped. The ABQ Journal has a good editiorial on this today. King Bill realizes that if NM elections are perceived as being corrupt and if he does nothing about it when he is governor, it will be harder for him to gain prominence on the national stage in 2008.
Good news. I noticed that bit about his advocating identity checks. I could hardly believe it, but I think your explanation is plausible.
ABQ Journal Editorial posted here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1279285/posts
The date on the link is November 4; it hasn't been updated. The total of Bush plus Kerry votes from above is 254,014 (vs. 250,734 on the link) and doesn't include Nader or minor party totals.
Bill Richardson and the Democrats are NOT interested, their soothing words to the contrary.
It's like deja vu all over again. . . Same hanky panky occurred in NM in 2000, could have been the same county; final count gave the state to Gore.
Compare the Yahoo Results with the NM SOS results county by county. The Bernarillo and Dona Ana totals in the SOS are larger.
However the SOS for some unknown reason has only a quarter ofthe pcts in Sandoval counted
The net is still that GWB has a 6000+ vote lead statewide, so the thousand or so in Dona Ana aren't going to change things much - Besides the Dona Ana vote is almost evenly split overall so it is no wonder that there appears to be a fiight between an an apparent Dem County clerk, and a Rep Sheriff and DA...
Richardson is so weak. Is that the best they have to offer??
With King Richard[son] it's all about power; he is a control freak. He's more akin to an old style political boss than a modern politican. Those who gave to his campaign got the jobs, even those traditionally held by professional people (such as members of boards and commissions, including university boards of regents). He required resignations of all, even those whose terms are staggered by law. It only stopped when he tried to stack the commission that recommends judical appointments -- the judges stepped in at that point.
The legislature is totally controlled by Democrats, but even members of his own party who did not support some of his legislation and spoke out were targeted for retaliation -- he line-item vetoed needed projects for their districts.
He's fired members of his cabinet who, after he demanded budget cuts at some agencies, made a mistake and cut a favored program.
He directed the state highway/transportation department to divert millions of dollars (intended to make badly needed road repairs) for purchase of a new state plane to ferry him around the state and elsewhere. The state AG (also a Democrat) got in a battle when she ruled that he could not divert the funds. He only backed down when the legislative finance committee and the majority of the media in the state came out against him doing that.
No, I could think of lots of names to call him, but weak is not one of them, in NM at least...
I believe that Richardson won with over 60 percent in the Republican year of 2002, didn't he? He is entrenched there. People in NM regard Richardson much as the West Virginians idolize Robert C. Byrd.
Well, Governor Richardson is doing his best to 'find' votes. I'm glad Ohio is under republican control. Jim
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