{"id":3756,"date":"2008-09-24T22:33:00","date_gmt":"2008-09-25T04:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/09\/is-the-guv-doing-enough-to-ensure-a-smooth-election\/"},"modified":"2008-09-24T22:33:00","modified_gmt":"2008-09-25T04:33:00","slug":"is-the-guv-doing-enough-to-ensure-a-smooth-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/09\/is-the-guv-doing-enough-to-ensure-a-smooth-election\/","title":{"rendered":"Is the guv doing enough to ensure a smooth election?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Should Gov. Bill Richardson<\/a> be doing more to ensure the November election runs smoothly in New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>? In an article published today, Trip Jennings of the New Mexico Independent explores that question. <\/p>\n

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

\u201cNew Mexico<\/st1:state> stands on the cusp of a possible election day meltdown that could turn the Land<\/st1:placetype> of Enchantment<\/st1:placename> into the Florida<\/st1:state> or Ohio<\/st1:state> of 2008,\u201d Jennings<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019 article, \u201cJet-setting guv courts Election Day disaster,\u201d<\/a> begins. \u201cBut Gov. Bill Richardson, the self-proclaimed go-to guy in New Mexico<\/st1:state>\u2019s hour of need, has been traveling the world in service to Barack Obama<\/a> and has done little to ensure that New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> will have a smooth election. He even has joked about voting in New Mexico.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n

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

The governor\u2019s office, Jennings<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> writes, is directing questions about elections preparedness to the secretary of state. But, as Jennings<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> points out, there are already problems in that office, including \u201chaving no state elections coordinator in place for months<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Meanwhile, Jennings<\/st1:city> points out the long list of places around the world Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> has traveled in recent months. The list includes Montana<\/st1:state>, Colombia<\/st1:country-region>, <\/st1:country-region>Puerto Rico and Oregon<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>.<\/p>\n

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

The article is a hard-hitting piece that suggests the governor has fixed problems in the past when he put his mind to it, but he hasn\u2019t \u201cfixed the broken voting system in his home state.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\u201cAnd the system shows many serious signs of possible failure, from unmaintained machines that may malfunction, to lack of guidance from the Secretary of State\u2019s office on voting on tribal lands, to the agency sending 11,805 voters<\/a> faulty addresses or locations for their polling places,\u201d Jennings wrote.<\/p>\n

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

Richardson spokesman Gilbert Gallegos told Jennings that the governor \u201ctakes the election process very seriously and he has agreed — as a member of the Board of Finance and during the recent special legislative session — to provide additional funding requested by the Secretary of State and county clerks for the primary and general elections.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

But, Jennings<\/st1:city> wrote, \u201cRichardson<\/st1:city>\u2019s ostensible distance from the issue of New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>\u2019s elections preparedness appears to run counter to his demonstrated penchant for getting involved when he wants something done.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

The governor\u2019s office wasn\u2019t happy with Jennings<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019 article.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cWho, besides Trip (Jennings<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>), is suggesting that the governor isn\u2019t doing enough?\u201d Gallegos asked me. \u201cThat\u2019s his opinion. The governor worked with the Board of Finance to provide emergency funding for the primary election, and he responded to concerns from the secretary of state and county clerks by pushing through emergency funding during the recent special session to ensure that election officials have the resources to effectively run the general election.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\u201cThe secretary of state is elected by voters to oversee elections,\u201d Gallegos said. \u201cNevertheless, the governor has been responsive to concerns and has acted accordingly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

A prior version of this posting incorrectly stated that Richardson<\/st1:city> had traveled to South Africa in recent months<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Should Gov. Bill Richardson be doing more to ensure the November election runs smoothly in New Mexico? In an article published today, Trip Jennings of the New Mexico Independent explores that question. \u201cNew Mexico stands on the cusp of a possible election day meltdown that could turn the Land of Enchantment into the Florida 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-3756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3756","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=3756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3756\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}