Mary Herrera
Mary Herrera wants people to know that she has worked hard to clean up a mess she inherited when she became secretary of state in 2007.
That has caused some employees to become disgruntled, Herrera claimed in a recent interview in Las Cruces. She said that’s the primary cause of much of the scandal that has plagued her tenure in office.
“I inherited a $3 million deficit,” Herrera said. “I inherited employees that weren’t working 8-5. They were coming and going.”
Herrera’s predecessor was former Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron, who was indicted last year on 50 counts including money laundering, fraud, soliciting or receiving kickbacks and tax evasion in the alleged theft of millions of dollars from the office. Trial in that case is pending. Vigil-Giron and her co-defendants have pleaded not guilty.
All that added up to a massive mess, Herrera said. She said she had to establish new rules and regulations. She had to create an organizational chart from scratch because one did not exist for the office. She had a human resources director who didn’t know many basic rules and systems needed to do her job.
In addition, the office was the subject of a federal audit related to the charges against Vigil-Giron.
“People need to understand where it was when I got into office,” Herrera said.
‘I feel successful’
Things are much better today, Herrera said. She worked to convince the federal government to not demand repayment of $6 million in federal funds Vigil-Giron is accused of misspending. Herrera also, as promised during her campaign, implemented an online campaign reporting system.
Herrera said her office was responsible for discovering that many voting machines around the state were approaching the end of their warranties, which led to many being fixed for free just before the warranty expired and saved taxpayer dollars. She said she also changed a rule that required elections-related mail to be sent First Class. The change allows her office to mail information to voters for 11 cents instead of 44 per mailer, which has saved taxpayers more than $200,000 this election.
Herrera said she has secured approval of legislation to clean up portions of the state’s Election Code. And she hired a webmaster to maintain the secretary of state’s Web site, which she says has improved its usability and the speed at which it can be updated.
“I feel successful,” Herrera said. She added that, now that she has cleaned up many problems in the office and has a better staff in place, a second term would be smoother, with less turnover and less controversy.
Lots of controversy
But it has been a rough first term for Herrera. Among the more visible problems were a situation in 2009 when the office’s Web site crashed, taking an under-development campaign reporting system with it. Even after the Web site came back online, questions about security remained.
Perhaps most notably, three former employees have alleged potential criminal activity in Herrera’s office and talked with law enforcement. Among the allegations laid out by former Elections Director A.J. Salazar is that Herrera ordered exempt employees to collect signatures for her re-election bid at a meeting held during work hours, that she was improperly soliciting donations from contractors doing business with the office to help fund a training, and that she retaliated against him after he tried to stop those potentially illegal actions.
Salazar resigned on his own, but the two others – former Office Manager Manny Vildasol and office spokesman James Flores – were fired after they went to the FBI with their allegations, prompting additional allegations that they were fired in retaliation for whistleblowing.
Herrera said the allegation that she ordered exempt employees to collect signatures at a meeting held during work hours is “untrue.” She also said employees who collected signatures did it on their own time, but most signatures were collected by Herrera and two of her friends. Herrera said she collected 7,000 signatures for her re-election bid herself.
Herrera reiterated allegations she’s made against Salazar in the past – that he’s disgruntled because she wouldn’t approve leave time he requested. She wouldn’t comment about the claim that Vildasol and Flores were fired because they went to the FBI, saying their firings are personnel matters.
When Herrera and others learned from a KOB-TV report that Vildasol had been secretly recording video on the office – Vildasol says the video shows potential criminal activity – Herrera said she and other women were “very upset about it” and considered it inappropriate and creepy.
Herrera acknowledged that the situation has created quite an election-year scandal, but said she hasn’t been contacted by the AG’s office or FBI for an interview or to obtain records, which leads her to believe there isn’t a serious investigation.
Herrera also said the situation reveals a flaw in the new whistleblower law enacted in 2007, which provides for cash rewards for employees who help root out fraud. Herrera said some employees will use the law to retaliate against bosses because they aren’t happy in their jobs or have been disciplined. She added that some checks need to be placed on the law.
County clerks
Another controversy Herrera has faced is conflict with county clerks. Five Democratic county clerks have endorsed Herrera’s opponent in the upcoming election, Republican Dianna Duran. Many clerks say Herrera’s office lacks competence, knowledge and experience.
Herrera said the criticism is nothing new, and was also pointed at Vigil-Giron when she was secretary of state and Herrera was the clerk in Bernalillo County.
Herrera said she’s not worried about their criticism.
“I’m not here to be 100 percent loved, even though I treat them with respect,” Herrera said. “I’m not going to let that bother me. They’re just not going to like whoever is on top.”
Voter fraud
Duran plans to make a strong push for the implementation of a voter fraud law if she’s elected. While Herrera said she’s not “totally opposed” to such a law, she said there’s no way the state will have the money to implement it in the next four years.
The costs of studying the issue, resolving issues of access for people like American Indians who live in very rural areas, purchasing cameras to keep track of activity at polling places, and creating a photo identification system are too great at this time, she said.
“It’s going to be awhile before we can figure it out,” Herrera said. “It’s not going to happen for awhile. It’s going to take a lot of studying, maybe a task force.”
The next four years
Herrera said she has some ideas to save money and potentially improve voter turnout if she is re-elected.
Herrera wants to implement voting “convenience centers” similar to those in place in Texas. That involves locating voting machines and staff in more heavily traveled areas, such as malls, and letting people vote at any of them, rather than a specific polling place. Fewer staff would be required on Election Day under such a system.
She said the City of Rio Rancho recently tried out such a system – with her help – and it worked well.
Herrera said her office has a grant to pilot use of electronic poll books in Taos, Lea and Valencia counties, which should make it easier for poll workers to do their jobs and save clerks lots of time because the system would record voter histories automatically. Herrera said she wants to take use of electronic poll books statewide in the next four years.
Herrera said she wants to make some improvements to the online campaign reporting system, including adding lobbyist disclosure information. It’s possible to have the system compare lobbyist data with campaign finance data, so a user could see which registered lobbyists have given money to a candidate. Herrera wants to make that possibility a reality.
Herrera said she plans to continue to draft new rules and propose potential changes to the election code to clean it up and make it consistent.
Beyond that, Herrera said she won’t make too many promises because of the current fiscal climate.
“I’m not going to make too many promises, because one thing I want to do is what I say I’m going to do,” Herrera said.