Approximately 2,487 people in Doña Ana County requested an absentee ballot to vote in last week’s election but never voted, Elections Supervisor and Clerk-elect Lynn Ellins announced today.
That number could drop when his office conducts an audit of the absentee ballot process in the next two weeks, Ellins said.
It’s the first indication of the scope of the absentee ballot snafu in which at least some people were disenfranchised because they requested but never received ballots and had no other way to vote. But the number isn’t a good indication of how many people were actually disenfranchised.
Ellins, speaking at today’s meeting of the Doña Ana County Board of Commissioners, said those approximately 2,500 people accounted for 21 percent of people who requested absentee ballots. But that percentage was significantly down from 2006 and 2004, when 45 percent of people who requested absentee ballots didn’t return them. It’s not clear how significant other factors, besides disenfranchisement, are in contributing to people not voting after requesting absentee ballots in this and the past two elections.
Commissioner Bill McCamley asked Ellins how many people requested but never received absentee ballots to vote in this election. Ellins said he couldn’t yet provide that number, but the question would be explored as part of the audit.
McCamley said he personally knows two people who were disenfranchised because they requested but never received their ballots and had no other way to vote.
Because of problems primarily in Doña Ana County but also in other areas of the state, the secretary of state authorized those who had not received absentee ballots they requested to instead vote in person during the final week of early voting and on Election Day. The county, like many around the state, was swamped with requests for absentee ballots and didn’t comply during the election cycle with a law requiring that absentee ballots be mailed out within 24 hours of the office receiving requests for the ballots. Ellins said during today’s meeting that it’s not possible to comply with the statute.
Ellins said in the next two weeks his office will focus on the audit to determine the scope and cause of the absentee ballot problem.
“I want to find out why there was a problem and I want to resolve it,” he said. “… I think there’s some legislative issues in this that need to be resolved as well as operational issues.”
At the meeting, Ellins said his office did a good job running the election, pointing out that early and Election Day voting “went very, very smoothly,” and the only major problem was with absentee ballots. McCamley said the office has come a long way from the last two presidential election cycles, when the county’s election was full of snafus that earned negative media attention.
“By and large it went smoothly,” Ellins said of last week’s election. “I’m proud of what my people did.”
Maria Silva Sutton, speaking on behalf of the Republican Party of Doña Ana County, had a different take. She requested an independent audit to determine who was disenfranchised and why.
“We have great concerns of non-compliance with the Help America Vote Act and state law requiring a 24-hour processing time for absentee ballots. Because many voters never received a ballot, they were disenfranchised from the voting process,” she said.