{"id":3931,"date":"2008-11-01T15:25:00","date_gmt":"2008-11-01T21:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/11\/concern-about-countys-absentee-ballots-grows\/"},"modified":"2008-11-01T15:25:00","modified_gmt":"2008-11-01T21:25:00","slug":"concern-about-countys-absentee-ballots-grows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/11\/concern-about-countys-absentee-ballots-grows\/","title":{"rendered":"Concern about county’s absentee ballots grows"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

County elections official says anyone who wants to vote has alternative ways to do it<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Will delays in mailing out absentee ballots mean that people who tried to vote in Do\u00f1a<\/st1:placename> Ana<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placename><\/st1:place> don\u2019t get to cast a ballot in Tuesday\u2019s election?<\/p>\n

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

And, if so, will the number of people who try but aren\u2019t able to vote be significant enough to affect the outcome of any races?<\/p>\n

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

Those are the questions Democrats, Republicans and others are trying to process since learning on Friday that the county\u2019s Bureau of Elections<\/a> hasn\u2019t complied this election cycle with a state statute that requires that absentee ballots be mailed out within 24 hours of the office receiving requests for the ballots.<\/p>\n

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

While there are varying interpretations of what it means — GOP officials allege that it could disenfranchise 3,000 to 5, 000 voters, while others argue the number of disenfranchised might be minimal or even zero — everyone appears to agree on one thing: the need to spread the word about alternative voting methods to as many people as possible before it\u2019s too late.<\/p>\n

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

The elections bureau is in compliance with the portion of the law that requires that all absentee ballots be mailed out by today. The last batch of approximately 20 ballots will be mailed out today, according to acting Supervisor of Elections Mario Jimenez.<\/p>\n

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

But the county\u2019s noncompliance with a second provision in state law was discovered Friday afternoon when GOP officials met with John Caldwell, the county\u2019s attorney, about the delay in people receiving absentee ballots. That provision requires that ballots be mailed out within 24 hours of the county receiving requests for those ballots. The county has been struggling to keep up with the high level of requests for absentee ballots and hasn\u2019t met the 24-hour deadline.<\/p>\n

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

The impact isn\u2019t immediately clear. Several Democratic and Republican officials and non-partisan voting groups have contacted me since Friday afternoon to express concern, but some facts are in dispute. While county GOP Chairman Mark Van Dyke said he was shocked to see 3,000 to 5,000 absentee ballots at the clerk\u2019s office on Friday afternoon still waiting to be mailed out, Caldwell and Jimenez both said that number is exaggerated and said about 700 ballots went out on Friday, leaving only about 20 to go out today.<\/p>\n

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

Other ways to vote<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Jimenez said he believes the impact of the absentee-ballot situation will be minimal.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cI don\u2019t want anybody to think they\u2019re disenfranchised, because they\u2019re not,\u201d he said. \u201cEverybody still has an opportunity to vote.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Among the alternative methods of voting for those who haven\u2019t received or returned absentee ballots:<\/p>\n

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

\u2022 They can vote in person, today before 6 p.m., at any of the county\u2019s early voting sites.<\/p>\n

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

\u2022 They can vote in-person on Election Day at their polling place.<\/p>\n

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

\u2022 People who are homebound, in hospice or in another setting because of a health problem or physical ailment that prevents them from voting in person can send someone with a signed note from the voter and a health-care provider explaining the situation. The county is required to provide that authorized representative a ballot and allow that person to return the ballot after it\u2019s been filled out.<\/p>\n

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

\u2022 Those who are physically unable to walk, if they can get a ride to a polling place, can vote from their vehicles. The individuals who drive them to polling places, or elections workers, can feed their ballots into counting machines for them.<\/p>\n

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

\u2022 Military personnel stationed outside New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> and anyone living overseas can request, even on Election Day, that their ballots be sent to them by e-mail or fax, and they can return their ballots the same way. Jimenez said such people were advised of that option months ago, and he recommends that, if they haven\u2019t already received or returned their absentee ballots by mail, they call the office and vote that way instead. The only drawback is that they have to sign forms waiving their right to privacy because an elections worker will see their faxed or e-mailed ballot.<\/p>\n

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

Mark Van Dyke, the county<\/st1:placetype> GOP<\/st1:placename><\/st1:place> chairman, said Jimenez\u2019s suggestions require \u201cextraordinary efforts\u201d from citizens who did what they needed to do to vote absentee but aren\u2019t able to through no fault of their own. He\u2019s worried that people won\u2019t be able to vote because they don\u2019t learn of the alternative ways to vote and don\u2019t receive their absentee ballots in time to vote. He\u2019s also concerned about people learning about the situation and not voting because they\u2019re discouraged.<\/p>\n

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

Van Dyke called the situation \u201coutrageous\u201d and said it\u2019s \u201cicing on the cake of problems that have haunted the Bureau of Election for years through multiple administrations.\u201d And, citing the estimate of 3,000 to 5,000 ballots being mailed out on Friday that Jimenez and Caldwell say is wrong, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Steve Pearce<\/a> called the situation \u201cbeyond unacceptable\u201d and alleged that \u201cthousands of New Mexicans will not be able to vote as a result of this action.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Jimenez, Pearce said, \u201cshould lose his job, and we should install someone who can oversee this election fairly and competently.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Conflict in clerk\u2019s office<\/span><\/p>\n

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

The revelation about the county not complying with the 24-hour statute comes after Secretary of State Mary Herrera<\/a> said on Thursday that she was concerned that workers are stretched too thin<\/a> in Do\u00f1a Ana County and revealed that the vast majority of complaints her office received this week came from Do\u00f1a Ana County and related primarily to absentee voting.<\/p>\n

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

Jimenez said at the time that his office isn\u2019t understaffed and things are running smoothly.<\/p>\n

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

But Caldwell<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> said today that Jimenez and his staffers have been working long hours. He said they are doing a great job in the face of incredibly high voter turnout and what Caldwell<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> called \u201cconflict\u201d in the clerk\u2019s office. Asked for specifics, he said it\u2019s common that employees of the records division in the clerk\u2019s office help out with elections, but a split that currently exists between records and elections meant that few workers from records were helping with elections until two days ago. Caldwell<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> said there are \u201cpeople in recording who would like to see (the Bureau of Elections) fail.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

He didn\u2019t elaborate, but Jimenez pointed out that his boss in the elections bureau, Lynn Ellins, was one of three employees of the office who ran earlier this year in the Democratic primary for clerk. The others were current Clerk Rita Torres and Martha Lucero, an employee of the records division.<\/p>\n

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

Ellins won that primary, and Lucero is supporting his Republican opponent, Sid Goddard, in the clerk\u2019s race. She wrote in a letter published in the Oct. 24 edition of the Las Cruces Bulletin<\/a> that the negative attention the elections problems have brought to the office \u201cas well as other issues\u201d have \u201ccreated a rift between the two departments\u201d that has \u201cled to countless personnel issues and decreased morale.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

In addition to that conflict, Jimenez is running an office that is without its supervisor, Ellins, who by state law can\u2019t work because he\u2019s a candidate for county clerk. And Torres suffers from health problems and isn\u2019t as involved in running the office as she once was.<\/p>\n

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

Caldwell<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> said Jimenez, in the face of the conflict and having to step in for Ellins, has \u201cproven to be very knowledgeable about the election code except for this one issue\u201d and done a good job running the election.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cI think some people are going to be disenfranchised by this,\u201d he said of the absentee-ballot situation. \u201cI hope it won\u2019t be huge.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

If you have questions about voting, call the elections bureau at (575) 647-7428 or the non-partisan group Election Protection at (866) OUR-VOTE or in Spanish at (888) VE-Y-VOTA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

County elections official says anyone who wants to vote has alternative ways to do it Will delays in mailing out absentee ballots mean that people who tried to vote in Do\u00f1a Ana County don\u2019t get to cast a ballot in Tuesday\u2019s election? And, if so, will the number of people who try but aren\u2019t able […]<\/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-3931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3931","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=3931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3931\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}