{"id":2945,"date":"2008-03-05T09:26:00","date_gmt":"2008-03-05T15:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/03\/judicial-hopeful-charged-with-voter-fraud-might-win\/"},"modified":"2008-03-05T09:26:00","modified_gmt":"2008-03-05T15:26:00","slug":"judicial-hopeful-charged-with-voter-fraud-might-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/03\/judicial-hopeful-charged-with-voter-fraud-might-win\/","title":{"rendered":"Judicial hopeful charged with voter fraud might win"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Sunland<\/st1:placename> Park<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place> judicial candidate facing a fourth-degree felony charge of voter fraud might actually be on his way to being elected.<\/p>\n

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

But that doesn\u2019t necessarily mean he\u2019ll take office. Though all votes haven\u2019t yet been counted, if Horacio Favela prevails, I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if the Judicial Standards Commission asks the state Supreme Court to act.<\/p>\n

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

With early, absentee and mail-in totals reported, Favela has 291 votes to Maria Laura Estrada\u2019s 154 votes, according to the Las Cruces Sun-News<\/a>. Final results from two polling places, City Hall and Riverside Elementary, weren\u2019t available. The clerk\u2019s office said this morning that no one who knows the results is in the office yet.<\/p>\n

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

It\u2019s fair to assume most of the votes that have been reported for Favela were cast before he was charged<\/a> on Friday with a fourth-degree felony that could land him in prison for 18 months, so it\u2019s possible Estrada will come out on top after the rest of the votes are reported. Favela allegedly used a residential address in El Paso<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placetype> and a business address in Do\u00f1a<\/st1:placename> Ana<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placename><\/st1:place> to vote by absentee ballot in both counties in 2004.<\/p>\n

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

Favela was supported in the race by Municipal Judge Martin Resendiz, who appears on his way to winning the mayor\u2019s race.<\/p>\n

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

If Favela prevails, the Supreme Court should act. Favela, unless his court case is resolved by his acquittal, won\u2019t be able to serve with the appearance of trustworthiness and honesty that is necessary to ensure the integrity of the judiciary. It will take some time for the criminal case to be resolved and, if he wins the race, he at least should be prevented from taking the bench until the case is resolved.<\/p>\n

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

Winners are set to be sworn in later this week.<\/p>\n

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

You can get other partial results from Sunland<\/st1:placename> Park<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place> by clicking here<\/a>. You can get full results from Mesilla by clicking here<\/a>, Hatch by clicking here<\/a> and other New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> cities\u2019 whose voters elected new officials on Tuesday by clicking here<\/a>. In Rio Rancho<\/a>, state Rep. Tom Swisstack<\/a> was easily elected mayor. The question now is whether he\u2019ll resign from his legislative seat.<\/p>\n

\n

A prior version of this posting incorrectly stated that Favela is accused of voting in both counties in 2002.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Sunland Park judicial candidate facing a fourth-degree felony charge of voter fraud might actually be on his way to being elected. But that doesn\u2019t necessarily mean he\u2019ll take office. Though all votes haven\u2019t yet been counted, if Horacio Favela prevails, I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if the Judicial Standards Commission asks the state Supreme Court […]<\/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-2945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2945","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=2945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2945\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}