Las Cruces Public Schools Board of Education candidate David Morgan arrived to vote late Friday only to find that his name was not on the sample ballot.
The omission was a mistake, Doña Ana County Elections Supervisor Lynn Ellins said, adding that he does not believe it had a negative effect because Morgan was the only person to cast a vote in the District 5 race on Friday, the first day of early voting.
Still, Morgan wasn’t happy.
“Mr. Ellins apologized, and I know mistakes happen,” Morgan said in a news release. “But this is more than forgetting a dot and an ‘I.’ Oversights like this are part of the reason why he has been hired by
“This is an election to help determine who will choose our school district’s next leader. Voters have to choose who will lead the hiring process for the next superintendent, as well as who will help clean up the legal mess from firing the previous one,” Morgan said. “Worrying about the integrity of the election is the last thing parents and educators need.”
Morgan is one of two challengers to District 5 Board Member Sharon Wooden on Feb. 6. District 4 is also up for grabs. John Schwebke is not seeking re-election to that seat, but two others are running.
Ellins said the state-authorized printer of the ballots is “way behind in deliveries.” On Friday, he said, the office received a “partial delivery” of the ballots for the Las Cruces Public Schools election, but not sample ballots. The office, he said, has received all official ballots for the
Because of that, the office prepared its own sample ballots on Friday morning and, Ellins said, “inadvertently omitted Morgan’s name” from the
Ellins said Morgan arrived to vote late Friday and asked about his name being left off the sample ballot. He said he had a new, correct ballot printed within five minutes. Ellins also said he has written a letter of apology to Morgan.
But he also said he was offended by Morgan’s criticism of his office, particularly his statement about the integrity of the election.
“In an effort to ensure integrity of all three school district elections, the Bureau of Elections has gone as far as possible – and as far as it knows how – to make certain that potential poll workers involved in all three school board campaigns are not appointed as poll workers,” he said. “We have screened poll workers as best we can to achieve this objective.”
“In addition, on election day we will have bureau personnel stationed at all polling places where we expect problems to occur, especially in the
Morgan, who is running on a platform of improving employee and parental involvement in the superintendent search, greater fiscal responsibility, increased salaries and reduction of what he calls a “top-heavy” administration, recently started a blog to promote his candidacy. You can view it by clicking here.