{"id":2132,"date":"2007-08-21T15:51:00","date_gmt":"2007-08-21T21:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/08\/group-says-n-m-is-on-the-cutting-edge-of-elections\/"},"modified":"2007-08-21T15:51:00","modified_gmt":"2007-08-21T21:51:00","slug":"group-says-n-m-is-on-the-cutting-edge-of-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/08\/group-says-n-m-is-on-the-cutting-edge-of-elections\/","title":{"rendered":"Group says N.M. is ‘on the cutting edge’ of elections"},"content":{"rendered":"

An independent research group issued a report today that said New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> \u201cis on the cutting edge of election administration\u201d after examining the state\u2019s management of the 2006 general election and the switch to paper ballots that accompanied it.<\/p>\n

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

The study found that more then eight in 10 voters rated their experience as excellent or good, according to a news release from the governor\u2019s office. The report came from the CalTech\/MIT Voting Technology Project<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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

The report said the state \u201chas executive and local leadership forging aggressively ahead with the intent of building a better, strong, efficacious and more voter confident voting system.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThis independent report confirms that our state\u2019s transition to a paper ballot system has been successful,\u201d Gov. Bill Richardson<\/a> said in a news release. \u201cVoters and poll workers favored the new voting process and gave it high marks for reliability, privacy and ease of use. Our experience clearly demonstrates that states can transition to paper ballot in less than a year and conduct accurate and transparent elections.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

According to researchers, New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> is the first state to move statewide from a predominantly electronic voting system to a single durable paper ballot system using optical scanners. Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> pushed hard for the shift, and the report is evidence that the work of the governor and others who pushed for paper ballots made a positive difference.<\/p>\n

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

But that doesn\u2019t mean the switch was easy or that there weren\u2019t problems. Officials are still investigating a $3 million budget shortfall in the secretary of state\u2019s office that resulted from the shift to paper ballots and administration of the 2006 election.<\/p>\n

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

Some of the report\u2019s findings, according to the governor\u2019s office, include:<\/p>\n

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

\u2022 That the state\u2019s system \u201cis fundamentally working, where voter problems are infrequent and where voter and poll worker confidence is generally high.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\u2022 \u201cVoters and poll worker data also indicated that both groups were largely favorable to the new voting process. Poll workers gave the new process particularly high marks on reliability, privacy and ease of use.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\u2022 Over eight in 10 voters rated their voting experience excellent or good. Three in five poll workers indicated that voters were satisfied with the new system, and 65 percent of poll workers considered the optical scan paper ballot system better than previous voting systems.<\/p>\n

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

The report recommends some further improvements in voter, poll worker and poll judge education, poll worker and poll judge training and precinct preparations, the release states.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cWe listened. We acted. New Mexico now has a progressive process for its voters \u2013 one durable, unified paper ballot system that, with some recommended adjustments, will further improve the election process as we look to 2008,\u201d House Speaker Ben Lujan<\/a> said in the governor\u2019s news release.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An independent research group issued a report today that said New Mexico \u201cis on the cutting edge of election administration\u201d after examining the state\u2019s management of the 2006 general election and the switch to paper ballots that accompanied it. The study found that more then eight in 10 voters rated their experience as excellent or […]<\/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-2132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2132","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=2132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2132\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}