Ellins details plans to improve county elections

The new Doña Ana County elections supervisor told commissioners Tuesday that some staff reorganization, better training of poll workers and a county poll worker manual will help improve elections.

Ellins revealed some details of the work of the elections task force at Tuesday’s meeting. He said many of the problems with past elections in the county were due to errors by poll workers. The county is short qualified poll workers and people to train poll workers for the Nov. 7 General Election.

Ellins said he needs six qualified trainers and currently has one.

But those issues are being addressed, he said. One of the recommendations of the task force will be to create a supplemental handbook to the state’s poll worker manual, which many poll workers have said isn’t clear or helpful.

And Ellins said his office will “exhaust” lists of people willing to work the polls provided by both major political parties before looking elsewhere, something that has not been done in the past.

Republicans have complained extensively about being willing to work but not being called by the administration of County Clerk Rita Torres, a Democrat.

“That will not happen this time,” Ellins told commissioners.

In addition to addressing past problems, Ellins said a “formidable challenge” will be figuring out how to deliver the new paper ballot equipment to each precinct the Friday before the election. That’s about 10 pieces of equipment for each precinct – much more than was required under the old system.

“This is going to be an interesting challenge from a security standpoint that we need to figure out, and haven’t figured out yet,” he said.

Ellins said the office plans to add several new phone lines to deal with calls from the public and precincts.

Asked about allegations of fraud in past elections, Ellins said he knows of no formal complaints to law enforcement, but acknowledged past problems.

“At the very least, there have probably been some errors in data entry that may have led to votes being miscounted,” Ellins said.

Asked by Commissioner Bill McCamley if he has all the resources he needs, Ellins said his office “might need some more funding” and said he may ask the commission to approve additional staffers for the November election.