{"id":3399,"date":"2008-06-24T17:43:00","date_gmt":"2008-06-24T23:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/06\/completed-voter-registration-forms-stolen-from-group\/"},"modified":"2008-06-24T17:43:00","modified_gmt":"2008-06-24T23:43:00","slug":"completed-voter-registration-forms-stolen-from-group","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/06\/completed-voter-registration-forms-stolen-from-group\/","title":{"rendered":"Completed voter-registration forms stolen from group"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ninety completed voter-registration applications that included Social Security numbers and dates of birth were stolen over the weekend from the Las Cruces<\/st1:City><\/st1:place> office of an independent voter-registration group.<\/p>\n

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

As a result, ACORN<\/a> plans to send letters to those whose applications were stolen to inform them of the situation. The letters will include blank applications that can be filled out and mailed directly to the county clerk\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

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

The group has the ability to send such letters because it keeps track of the information of those it registers \u201cin order to ensure they get placed successfully on the voter rolls,\u201d according to a news release from the group.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cWe don\u2019t want anything to stand in the way of new voters participating in the upcoming election,\u201d ACORN Board Member Mark Gerring said in the news release, \u201cso while we are outraged that someone would take new voters\u2019 applications, we can at least be sure that all of these future voters can have another opportunity to complete an application and mail it directly to the county clerk.\u201d<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

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

The burglary was discovered about 8 p.m. Friday. Matthew Henderson, the head of ACORN in New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:State>, said the incident was immediately reported to police. He said ACORN rents space in the Las Cruces<\/st1:place><\/st1:City> office of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees<\/a>, and the only item stolen from either office was the locked box containing the 90 voter-registration applications.<\/p>\n

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

Henderson<\/st1:place><\/st1:City> said the group assumes the burglary was random and that the thief stole the box because he or she believed it contained money. He said police are investigating.<\/p>\n

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

County spokesman Jess Williams said the burglary reveals a problem in state law, which doesn\u2019t regulate groups that conduct independent voter-registration drives or the security measures they use to protect personal information.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cThe problem is that the statute is wide open. You could drive a truck through it. And bureaus of elections and the secretary of state have no control over who conducts voter-registration drives,\u201d Williams said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to get the statute changed if we\u2019re going to protect people\u2019s identities.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Henderson<\/st1:place><\/st1:City> said there were two layers of security protecting the applications: They were stored in a locked box in a locked office. In addition, he said completed applications aren\u2019t kept at the ACORN office for more than 48 hours before they\u2019re submitted to the county clerk. He said ACORN has never had voter-registration applications stolen from an office in New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:State>, though another independent group had applications stolen during the 2004 election cycle.<\/p>\n

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

James Flores, spokesman for the Secretary of State\u2019s Office, said his office had not been informed about the burglary. He said he hopes those whose applications were stolen will fill out and submit the second applications ACORN is mailing to them.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cBurglaries happen, but it\u2019s a shame that this happened,\u201d he said. \u201c\u2026 I hope it doesn\u2019t deter them from wanting to get involved in the process.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Earlier this month, Do\u00f1a<\/st1:PlaceName> Ana<\/st1:PlaceName> County<\/st1:PlaceName><\/st1:place>\u2019s Bureau of Elections warned that it had received complaints about misleading voter-registration activities<\/a> by ACORN employees, a charge ACORN denied.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ninety completed voter-registration applications that included Social Security numbers and dates of birth were stolen over the weekend from the Las Cruces office of an independent voter-registration group. As a result, ACORN plans to send letters to those whose applications were stolen to inform them of the situation. The letters will include blank applications that […]<\/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-3399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3399","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=3399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3399\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}