{"id":1575,"date":"2007-04-10T13:16:00","date_gmt":"2007-04-10T19:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/04\/commissioners-certify-spaceport-tax-election-results\/"},"modified":"2007-04-10T13:16:00","modified_gmt":"2007-04-10T19:16:00","slug":"commissioners-certify-spaceport-tax-election-results","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/04\/commissioners-certify-spaceport-tax-election-results\/","title":{"rendered":"Commissioners certify spaceport tax election results"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The Do\u00f1a Ana County Board of Commissioners today certified the results of last week\u2019s spaceport tax election. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

On a vote of 5-0, commissioners approved the final results. Voter approved the tax by 270 votes, or a difference of 1.6 percent, out of 17,770 votes cast. The final count had 9,020 votes in favor of and 8,750 votes against imposing a 1\/4 percent gross-receipts tax increase to help fund Spaceport America<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The approval came only after Paul Borunda of Las Cruces<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> alleged to commissioners that his daughter was denied the right to vote on Election Day. He said she was told she couldn\u2019t vote because her name had been crossed of the list in an effort to ensure no one who has died was on the roster of registered voters. He also said she was not offered a provisional ballot.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Commission Chairwoman Karen Perez<\/a> apologized to Borunda.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cIt breaks my heart that there may have been somebody that was not allowed to vote,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Borunda said he has filed a complaint with the secretary of state\u2019s office, but no state official has yet contacted the county. Elections Supervisor Lynn Ellins and County Attorney John Caldwell said they have looked into the situation and did not find allegations of widespread mistakes or of anyone else being denied the right to vote.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Ellins said he spoke with the presiding judge at the precinct where Borunda\u2019s daughter allegedly tried to vote, a man who has been a poll worker for 11 years.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cHe says that no one was turned away,\u201d Ellins said, adding that Borunda\u2019s daughter would not have been offered a provisional ballot because her name was on the roster. He also noted that two provisional ballots were accepted at that polling place on Election Day.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cSo it\u2019s sort of a he-said, she said situation, only I haven\u2019t heard from her yet, or anyone else about irregularities,\u201d Ellins said.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Ellins pledged further investigation if the state wants it, and said he would write a letter to Borunda informing him of the results.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

As to the election, Tamie Smith of Las Cruces<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>, who opposed the tax, said she wished spaceport supporters success on the project.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cThis election was hardly a mandate, so you better be sure you guys do it right, and you better be sure those promises materialize,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Mitch Boyer of Vado, one of the leaders of the opposition to the tax, said a private donor offered to fund a recount, but the group believes the election was run with integrity and did not doubt the results.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Do\u00f1a Ana County Board of Commissioners today certified the results of last week\u2019s spaceport tax election. On a vote of 5-0, commissioners approved the final results. Voter approved the tax by 270 votes, or a difference of 1.6 percent, out of 17,770 votes cast. The final count had 9,020 votes in favor of and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1575\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}