New Mexico

Articles about voting issues in New Mexico.

Electronic Voter Registration Drive Tests Power Of Technology Against Voter ID Policies Huffington Post

May 032012

As both the Republican and Democratic parties clamor to claim a larger share of the Latino electorate this year, electronic voter registration has emerged as a potential sweet spot, a space where political procedure may collide with culture and boost Latino voter participation. In New Mexico, that theory is in the early stages of a ground test. Jetta Reynolds has spent a good portion of the last five years working to register voters in the Albuquerque, N.M., area. She’s heard the questions people raise about the process so often that before she deployed nearly 200 volunteers to do the same work at grocery stores and street fairs this year, she created her own Spanish and English-language voter registration brochure. But when Reynolds took Jason Libersky — one of the developers behind a new voter registration app called Evotee — and his iPad to a session for mostly Latino and Native American potential voters Monday, it was Reynolds who walked away surprised. Read More »

Republican Commits Voter Fraud By Registering Dog As A Democrat | TPM

Mar 022012

A Republican man in New Mexico wanted to show how easy he thought it was to commit voter fraud. So the Albuquerque man did just that: committed voter registration fraud by registering his dog, Buddy, to vote. Local news station KOB Eyewitness News 4 in New Mexico reported on the man’s stunt this week. “They should verify. Somebody should have verified this information and somebody should have come out and took a look at exactly who it was,” the unidentified man told the news station. “But I made up a birth date, and I made up a social security number and I had a voter registration card in my hand for Buddy two weeks later.” The news station interviewed the man on camera but granted the dog owner anonymity, and faded out any personal information, though it’s wasn’t clear why. Danielle Todesco, the reporter who put the piece together, said in an email to TPM that she discussed the decision to grant the man anonymity with her news director. Read More »

GOP will appeal state New Mexico Supreme Court redistricting to federal court on Monday | New Mexico Watchdog

Feb 132012

Capitol Report New Mexico has learned that Republicans allied with the administration of Gov. Susana Martinez will formally file an appeal in federal court on Monday (Feb. 13) over the New Mexico Supreme Court’s reversal of a House of Representatives redistricting map OK’d back on Jan. 3 by a retired judge the high court itself assigned to tackle the hydra-headed problem of re-apportioning districts for the next 10 years across the state. Democrats embraced the 4-1 ruling by the state Supreme Court to kick the House redistricting decision back to Judge Jim Hall, who adopted a map that was sponsored by attorneys for the Republican governor after hearing from attorneys from the Democratically-controlled legislature as well as a number of other lawyers representing various other political interests in New Mexico. Read More »

Supreme Court rejects House redistricting plan | The Marshfield News-Herald | marshfieldnewsherald.com

Feb 132012

The New Mexico Supreme Court on Friday overturned a plan for new districts for the state House of Representatives and ordered a judge to draw a new map. The court issued a 4-1 split decision that was a victory for Democrats and the Legislature, which had challenged a redistricting plan ordered last month by retired District Court Judge James Hall. The justices said the judge should try to develop a new redistricting plan by Feb. 27. The traditional filing deadline for House candidates is next month, but the uncertainty of the redistricting case has cast doubts over that schedule. Read More »

Voter ID bills again stall in committee | The Santa Fe New Mexican

Feb 092012

In what has become an annual ritual at the state Legislature, a House committee on Tuesday voted along party lines to effectively kill measures that would require voters to present photo identification before casting ballots at the polls. During a two-hour hearing before the House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee, Republicans argued that people voting under someone else’s name — or at least the potential of such fraud — is a serious problem. ”There is a crisis in confidence,” said Rep. Cathrynn Brown, R-Carlsbad, sponsor of one of the bills. “People do not trust that votes are tallied fair and square.” Read More »

Forum presents downsides of voter-ID laws | Santa Fe New Mexican

Jan 252012

Requiring voters to present photo identification before casting ballots at the polls would disenfranchise many New Mexicans and would especially affect minorities, the elderly, students and people with disabilities, said several panelists Monday at a League of Women Voters panel discussion. Panel members urged lawmakers to vote against any photo ID bill introduced in the Legislature. However, they probably were preaching to the choir — as only Democratic legislators showed up to the event. Democrats in New Mexico, and elsewhere in the country, tend to be against voter-ID legislation, while Republicans tend to support it. Read More »

Lawmakers to consider voter ID requirement | The Santa Fe New Mexican

Jan 052012

Legislation to repeal the law that allows illegal immigrants to get driver’s licenses often is cited as the most divisive issue the Legislature likely will deal with during the upcoming session. But another highly controversial and highly partisan issue also will be debated at the Roundhouse during the 30-day session.

The issue is a perennial one in New Mexico — “voter ID,” which is political shorthand for requiring voters to show photo identification before voting. The chief of staff for Secretary of State Dianna Duran confirmed Tuesday that Duran will push for such legislation in the session. And a spokesman for Gov. Susana Martinez said Tuesday that the governor would grant a message for the bill to allow it to be addressed in the upcoming session.

In this state, as in other states across the country, Republicans support the voter ID idea, saying it’s needed to protect against vote fraud — such as people using someone else’s name to vote. However, Democrats counter that there’s no evidence that massive voter fraud actually exists and claim that the whole idea is a Republican scheme to repress voter turnout among the elderly, young voters and minorities. Those groups are the most likely not to have voter identification. And, historically, these groups tend to vote for Democrats. Read More »

GOP New Mexico Sec of State Finds Tiny Fraction Of The Voter Fraud She Alleged | TPM

Nov 192011

New Mexico Secretary of State Dianna Duran said earlier this year that her state had a “culture of corruption” and referred 64,000 voter registration records to police that she thought were possible cases of voter fraud. Now a new report from her office proves she was completely right, 0.0296875 percent of the time.

Duran’s interim report now alleges that 104 voters — about one for every 10,577 on the rolls — were illegally registered to vote. Of that group, just 19 — or approximately one for every 57,894 registered voters — actually allegedly cast a ballot they shouldn’t have. Read More »

Doña Ana County considers using at-large voting centers | Las Cruces Sun-News

Oct 252011

Amid rushing the kids to school, zipping through a busy day at work, squeezing in a few other chores and picking the kids up from soccer, gymnastics or guitar lessons, finding time to cast your election-day ballot as important as it may be sometimes falls by the wayside.

That’s especially the case if your memory is a bit fuzzy about where to vote. Was it Alameda Elementary School? Or that community center a few streets away? Or just possibly that neighborhood church used two years ago?
County officials said they’re hoping a proposal up for consideration Tuesday will streamline the process of election-day voting and make it more accessible to voters.

The proposal would change the way the county hosts election-day voting moving it from precinct-based polling places to at-large voting centers.
Instead of voting at a designated precinct or casting a provisional ballot if you show up at the wrong precinct you’d visit to any one of 39 voting centers throughout Doña Ana County, said County Clerk Lynn Ellins, a Democrat. Read More »

Judge limits investigation of immigrant driver's-license holders | The Santa Fe New Mexican

Sep 152011

A judge is allowing Republican Gov. Susana Martinez’s administration to move ahead with a limited investigation to determine whether some immigrants with New Mexico driver’s licenses still live in the state.

District Judge Sarah Singleton on Tuesday decided that some residency checks can continue, although she’s putting on hold the administration’s broad plan for potentially certifying the licenses of tens of thousands of foreign nationals, including those living illegally in the country. The judge said she will issue an injunction to block the program pending the outcome of a lawsuit brought by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund. Read More »

Watchdog: Probe of voter registrations detrimental | The Santa Fe New Mexican

Sep 062011

A national elections watchdog group has told Secretary of State Dianna Duran that her referral of 64,000 voter registrations to the state Department of Public Safety for investigation might undermine confidence in the system and violate state law.

In a letter to Duran dated Thursday, Ben Hovland, senior counsel for the Washington, D.C.-based Fair Elections Legal Network, wrote, “We fear that your attempt to ensure ‘accuracy and integrity’ in the system has had the opposite effect as unsubstantiated claims of large numbers of irregularities on voter registration records do not lead to greater accuracy of records and may, indeed, serve to undermine confidence in the system.”

Hovland asked for additional details as to the nature of this investigation, including the methodology used to select and examine the 64,000 registration records, when the investigation might be finished, and information about the steps taken to protect the private data in the registration records being investigated. Read More »

State Cops Skip Voter File Probe | Albuquerque Journal

Sep 052011

The State Police are not conducting a proposed criminal investigation into 64,000 irregularities in the state’s voter file, although Secretary of State Dianna Duran sent the files to the agency months ago for an inquiry.

Gorden Eden, secretary of the state Department of Public Safety, which oversees the State Police, said Friday that his agency has been acting in an “advisory” role with Duran’s office but does not have the resources to look at all 64,000 cases. He also said it is more appropriate for Duran’s office to conduct the inquiry.

“This is truly an issue, a case, that needed to be looked at by the SOS’s office,” Eden said. But Eden did not rule out a future criminal investigation, if evidence is presented that one is needed. Read More »

Fewer voting sites, shorter lines? | KRQE

Aug 222011

The City of Albuquerque is cutting a lot of its polling locations to help alleviate the long lines and confusion for voters. The county could soon be following suit. City Clerk Amy Bailey said for the October municipal elections the word precinct is out. Recently, city councilors approved the plan to move away from precinct polling locations to voting convenience centers. “We have decided to do Election Day a little bit differently than how it’s been done in the past,” Bailey said.

Bailey said that plan would consolidate the city’s 168 voting sites to 49. The convenience is that voters can vote at any location. “The most important thing for people to know is you’re not assigned to you’re not assigned to one particular place to vote on Election Day,” Bailey said. Read More »

Secretary of State Dianna Duran ruffles feathers | latimes.com

Aug 012011

Dianna Duran, New Mexico’s secretary of State who took office in January, sounded a tad pugnacious in March when she reported that 117 foreign nationals with phony Social Security numbers had registered to vote and 37 had cast ballots in elections. There was, she said, “a culture of corruption” in the state.

Duran, who had ordered her staff to check 1.16 million voter registration records against motor vehicle and Social Security databases, also raised eyebrows by referring 64,000 voter registration records to the state police, citing irregularities.

No one has been charged with a crime, and Duran, a former Republican state senator and county clerk, has since taken fire from Democratic legislators, public interest groups and news organizations that say she has overstated her case, scared voters and withheld proof of her claims. Read More »

Our View: Voter fraud: Lay it out in the open | Silver City Sun-News

Jul 292011

When the state’s top election official makes a public allegation of criminal behavior during prior elections, it is something that should be taken seriously and looked at closely. Secretary of State Dianna Duran made just such an allegation in March during a legislative committee hearing. Duran told lawmakers she had uncovered evidence that 37 people who are not U.S. citizens had voted in New Mexico elections.

But, when the ACLU filed an open records request the next day to examine the registration records of the 37 voters highlighted by Duran during the public meeting of the Legislature, she refused to turn them over, hiding behind the weak and inappropriate excuse of “executive privilege.”

Executive privilege allows a president, governor or other member of the executive branch to confer with advisors in private, without divulging the nature of those discussions or the participants. For example, when Democrats wanted to know who had served on an energy task force several years ago, Vice President Dick Cheney claimed executive privilege in denying that request. It does not allow a member of the executive branch to conceal evidence of an alleged crime. Read More »

ACLU sues New Mexico Secretary of State over voter registration | Alamogordo Daily News

Jul 212011

The ACLU of New Mexico on Wednesday sued Secretary of State Dianna Duran, claiming she violated the open records law by withholding public information about alleged wrongdoing by voters.

To read the full text of the complaint, click here.

Duran, a Republican, told state legislators in March that she had evidence of possible voter fraud by 37 people. She said they had cast ballots in New Mexico elections but may not have been U.S. citizens. A day later, the ACLU filed a public information request to inspect the records so it could check Duran’s allegations. In its lawsuit filed in state district court in Albuquerque, the ACLU said that Duran’s staff then illegally concealed documents. The ACLU contends that Duran inappropriately invoked “executive privilege” and redacted requested emails and records so heavily that they were useless.

Top elections official says review of voter rolls is about accuracy, not fraud | The Republic

Jul 162011

Secretary of State Dianna Duran repeatedly told a panel of lawmakers Friday her office is not pursuing any political agenda regarding voter registration in New Mexico and she flatly denied allegations that she’s targeting illegal immigrants in a review of the state’s voter rolls.

Duran, a former Republican state senator and county clerk, said she’s simply making good on a campaign promise to verify that all of the 1.16 million people who are registered to vote in New Mexico are in fact legally eligible to cast a ballot.

“I told the people of the state of New Mexico last year … that I would do my best to serve in the best possible way that I could to assure integrity in the election process, integrity in the election system,” she said. “That’s all that is going on here. It is not a witch hunt. It is not a fishing expedition.” Read More »

Duran praised, attacked for voter fraud investigation | Alamogordo Daily News

Jul 162011

A legislator on Friday asked Secretary of State Dianna Duran to end a state police investigation of 64,000 registered voters, but Duran said she was duty-bound to continue it. She said the expertise of police investigators would help her office make sure that New Mexico’s voter rolls were updated and accurate.

State Rep. Richard Vigil, D-Ribera, said Duran had mishandled the case by involving police without any evidence that a crime had been committed. ”I have a piece of advice for you,” he said to Duran during the end of a three-hour legislative hearing. “Bring those files back from the Department of Public Safety. Hand them to the 33 county clerks” who have expertise in voter registrations and elections.

If the clerks find any evidence of voter fraud, Vigil said, the case should be turned over to the appropriate district attorney for criminal prosecution. Read More »

Vigil-Giron seeks to restore her name | Alamogordo Daily News

Jul 092011

Former secretary of state Rebecca Vigil-Giron has no job, few obligations, too much idle time. At 56, her life is on hold, but she still burns with one ambition. ”I want vindication,” she said.

Almost two years have passed since state Attorney General Gary King obtained indictments against Vigil-Giron and three other people who were contract employees in her office. They are charged with 49 counts of money laundering, fraud and kickbacks.

“I was quiet for quite a while. Not now. This is a political witch hunt,” Vigil-Giron said in an interview. Read More »

In voter fraud case, officials err on the side of secrecy | NMPolitics.net

Jun 232011

My efforts to obtain the evidence behind Secretary of State Dianna Duran’s claim that she has found instances of foreign nationals illegally voting have been shot down again, this time by the Taxation and Revenue Department.

Two months ago I asserted that Secretary of State Dianna Duran failed the open government test because she put a number of hurdles – some of them illegal – in front of my efforts to obtain the “evidence” she claims to have found of foreign nationals illegally voting in elections.

Since then, I tried a backdoor route to obtain some of the information, filing a public records request with the state’s Taxation and Revenue Department (TRD) for e-mail correspondence between its Motor Vehicle Division and Duran’s office, and all documents attached to those e-mails. Read More »

Legislators question scope of New Mexico voter fraud investigation | Las Cruces Sun-News

Jun 202011

Democrats on a legislative committee made Secretary of State Dianna Duran the butt of jokes and criticism Friday, saying she had mishandled an investigation into voter fraud. Duran, a Republican, has forwarded 64,000 voter records to state police so its investigators can help determine whether any laws were broken. Those under investigation account for about 5 percent of New Mexico’s 1.16 million registered voters.

State Sen. Cisco McSorley, D-Albuquerque, told fellow members of the Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee that the massive scope of Duran’s investigation shocked him. He questioned her logic and her tactics. ”I sure don’t think this is a public-safety issue,” McSorley said of Duran’s decision to involve police. Read More »

Voter fraud: Time to undertake complete review | Las Cruces Sun-News

Jun 202011

What started out as a review of 37 cases of possible voter fraud has mushroomed into a massive investigation by the State Police of some 64,000 cases. The Secretary of State’s Office, headed by newly elected Republican Dianna Duran, has turned over truckloads of voter records for the State Police to review.

Daniel Ivey-Soto, executive director of the organization that represents New Mexico’s 33 county clerks, has derided the investigation as a “64,000-record fishing expedition.” We disagree.

In fact, we’d like to see the investigation expanded further still, if that’s what it takes to finally bring resolution to an issue that has festered for far too long, casting doubt — justified or not — on our electoral process. And, while Ivey-Soto thinks the clerks would be better positioned to conduct such an investigation, we believe only a thorough and complete review by the State Police will be seen as credible. Read More »

State Police to probe 64K records for voter fraud | Las Cruces Sun-News

Jun 132011

New Mexico State Police will review a staggering 64,000 voter cases to determine if any fraud has occurred in recent elections. Public Safety Director Gorden Eden outlined the scope of the investigation during an interview last week. He said the voter files were turned over to state police by Secretary of State Dianna Duran.

Duran, a Republican, publicly told legislators in March that her staff had uncovered 37 instances of possible voter fraud, though she said her investigation had only begun.

That small stack of what Duran called “questionable” cases has turned into a mountain of files for police to pore over. Duran said her staff had flagged tens of thousands of voter records that needed “further review” by criminal investigators. Read More »

Legislation allows vote centers in New Mexico | Quay County Sun

May 112011

Quay County Clerk Ellen White expressed excitement Monday over new state legislation that allows the county to consolidate voting precincts.

“In November we have to establish our polling places and precincts for the next general election and primary election cycle, so what this enables us to do is to locate a facility that is centrally located and that has a good broadband Internet connection, and by doing that we’ll eliminate all the voting precincts within the City of Tucumcari and everybody will vote in one location. I’m really excited about being able to do that,” White said. Read More »

Thousands of voter files altered in New Mexico; clerk demands Secretary of State restrict access | Veritas NM.com

Apr 252011

A few days after New Mexico Secretary of State Dianna Duran notified all 33 county clerks that their biennial voter purge would be canceled this year, Deputy Bernalillo County Clerk Robert Adams made a disturbing discovery — 44,601 county files stored on the state’s voter registration database had been accessed and altered.

Accustomed to spending long hours in front of his computer, Adams says he was shocked to learn informational “flags,” which are attached to voter files after mail is returned by the U.S. Postal Service as undeliverable, had simply vanished on Valentine’s Day. Read More »

New Mexico: Partisanship Voting's Biggest Threat | Albuquerque Journal

Apr 112011

Of all the important election-related proposals that were considered in our latest New Mexico legislative session, one stands out. This is the issue of photo voter identification, which generated extreme partisan interest.

Photo voter ID was promoted in the election campaigning by our new Republican governor and also by our new Republican secretary of state, who said in legislative hearings that it was the issue most frequently raised by her supporters. She also claimed that in the Motor Vehicle Department database she had found 117 cases of noncitizens who were registered to vote. But she did not offer evidence showing whether those people had become naturalized and therefore eligible to vote, or whether the names of those in the MVD database just happened to be the same as those of other individuals in the overall voter registration database. Read More »

A New Routine for Some New Mexico Voters | Albuquerque Journal

Apr 082011

Voters may have to buck their routines in the 2012 election after Gov. Susana Martinez on Thursday signed election-related measures that could significantly alter Election Day procedures in some counties. Counties will now have the option of consolidating staff — and precincts — into large “voting centers.”

The centers will operate much like early voting sites, allowing people to vote at any of the voting centers regardless of where they live in the county. On the flip side, many voters will no longer have the option of voting at their traditional precincts, usually at a local school, if their county chooses the voting center option in 2012. County clerks pushed for the legislation earlier this year, calling it a more efficient voting system that will save taxpayer dollars. Read More »