The Roundhouse in Santa Fe (Photo by Peter St. Cyr)
Many complaints of potential violations of state election law in primary races won’t be resolved before voters go to the polls on Tuesday, according to State Elections Director Don Francisco Trujillo II.
There are two reasons: The Secretary of State’s Office operates under a policy that slows investigations down to ensure they’re thorough. In addition, the office doesn’t have the staff to quickly sort through complaints.
There are currently about 30 pending complaints related to Tuesday’s primary and the municipal elections that were held in March, Trujillo said. While he acknowledged that candidates have a “high expectation” of getting a resolution before the election, he said, “our protocol isn’t one that resolves issues immediately.”
When the Secretary of State’s Office receives a complaint, a staffer begins gathering related materials. Once that’s done, the complaint is sent out to all involved. The accused has 10 days to respond before the secretary of state will begin the process of issuing a determination.
The policy, which you can find here, is created by the office, not mandated under state statute.
The process is further slowed by the fact that the office has one staffer assigned to investigate complaints, Trujillo said.
“When you have one person, yes, it can be overwhelming,” he said.
District 5 PRC race
District 5 Public Regulation Commission candidate Kent Evans, a Republican, said he’s frustrated by the system. Tony Schaefer, a former PRC member who is helping his campaign, has filed a complaint alleging that one of Evans’ primary opponents, Jamie Estrada, has left some campaign expenses off his finance reports.
Evans said the lack of timely response to complaints lets candidates know they won’t be held accountable.
“If you know that they don’t do anything and that they can’t investigate any of these things, you can do anything you want to do,” he said.
And while Evans added that it is “understandable” that the secretary of state intentionally slows the process to ensure it is done properly, he also said the office could speed up response to complaints if it had more resources.
“If we can help them get the resources to do what they need to do to have everybody follow the rules, it would be great,” Evans said.
Estrada, who maintains that he’s reported expenses as state law requires, said he understands the secretary of state’s position.
“If they’re slowing down the process to make sure the interests of voters are protected, then that’s something I would support,” Estrada said. “This is not about using the process in order for candidates to try to have an advantage.”
‘Better to be accurate’
Trujillo said he understands that those involved in complaints want them resolved quickly, but his office’s policy is similar to those of other agencies and was developed with the help of legal counsel.
“It’s better to be accurate and to do a thorough investigation than to try and rush on something,” Trujillo said.
In many instances the allegations are serious. Some of the pending complaints from March municipal races relate to whether candidates for mayor actually lived in the cities in which they ran. A pending complaint in Raton involves people who allegedly voted even though they weren’t eligible.
On top of the pending complaints from the municipal and primary elections, the office is sorting through primary candidates’ use of the new campaign finance information system, trying to determine whether people who didn’t file finance reports by required deadlines intentionally disregarded the requirement or tried but failed to comply with the new system.
The focus is educational, rather than punitive, Trujillo said, but those who fail to file reports even after being contacted and offered help could be fined.