{"id":40745,"date":"2012-06-11T06:37:30","date_gmt":"2012-06-11T12:37:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=40745"},"modified":"2012-06-12T06:13:51","modified_gmt":"2012-06-12T12:13:51","slug":"some-primary-races-are-still-up-in-the-air","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2012\/06\/some-primary-races-are-still-up-in-the-air\/","title":{"rendered":"Some primary races are still up in the air"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>

The Roundhouse in Santa Fe (Photo by Heath Haussamen)<\/p><\/div>\n

The Democratic primary in the race to replace outgoing Sen. David Ulibarri and the GOP battle for the right to take on Senate President Pro Tem Tim Jennings in November are still up in the air.<\/h4>\n

Some primary races \u2013 including at least two high-profile legislative contests \u2013 are still up in the air.<\/p>\n

Maxine Velasquez<\/a> finished Election Day with a lead of three votes over Clemente Sanchez<\/a> in the state Senate District 30 Democratic primary race, 1,221 to 1,218. But there are still provisional ballots to consider.<\/p>\n

The winner will unseat incumbent Democrat David Ulibarri<\/a> and take on Republican Vickie Perea<\/a> in November.<\/p>\n

Capitol Report New Mexico has more:<\/p>\n

\u201cCiboloa County was supposed to canvass its\u00a054 provisional and 5 absentee ballots on Friday\u00a0<\/a>(June 8th) but Sanchez told\u00a0Capitol Report New Mexico\u00a0<\/a>that the county clerk\u2019s office postponed the count until next Wednesday (June 13).<\/p>\n

\u201cCapitol Report New Mexico talked to\u00a0Valencia County Clerk Sally Perea\u00a0<\/a>Friday afternoon, who reported that Sanchez picked up one vote to zero for Velasquez in provisional ballots. So that would reduce Velasquez\u2019s margin to just two votes.<\/p>\n

\u201cRick Palochak<\/a>, the director of elections in McKinley County, told Capitol Report New Mexico that four provisional ballots qualified in the one precinct in McKinley County that includes Senate District 30 and that his staff will go through all of the county\u2019s provisional ballots at 9 a.m. Monday (June 11).\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The race is already noteworthy because of the unseating of Ulibarri. In addition, Velasquez is a progressive-backed candidate getting lots of help, further raising the profile of the race. And Perea is a Republican challenger her party is excited about. The GOP thinks it has a chance of picking up this seat in November.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s at least one other race that may still be up in the air. Also from Capitol Report N.M.<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are\u00a0just 10 votes separating\u00a0Chad Hamill\u00a0<\/a>from\u00a0Cliff Pirtle\u00a0<\/a>and a recount may be in\u00a0the works but Hamill\u00a0has already conceded to\u00a0his fellow\u00a0Republican\u00a0in the\u00a0GOP primary for (a) state Senate seat in the Roswell area.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018What it is is what it is,\u2019 Hamill said\u00a0by telephone to\u00a0Capitol Report New Mexico\u00a0<\/a>Friday morning (June 8). \u2018I already called Cliff and congratulated him.\u2019\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But that doesn\u2019t mean the Republican primary in Senate District 32 is over. State law triggers an automatic recount if the election is within on half of one percent of total votes cast. In this case, Pirtle\u2019s 10-vote lead \u2013 1,018 to 1,008 \u2013 is one half of one percent.<\/p>\n

The race is important because the winner takes on Senate President Pro Tem Tim Jennings<\/a>, D-Roswell, in November, and many believe Jennings is vulnerable to a GOP challenge this year.<\/p>\n

\u2018Many reasons for casting a provisional ballot\u2019<\/h3>\n

Common Cause New Mexico\u2019s voting rights director, Diane Wood, told NMPolitics.net there are still provision ballots to count in the GOP Senate District 32 primary and other races. The group is spearheading an initiative<\/a> to ensure every vote is counted.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are many reasons for casting a provisional ballot, and those voters still have an opportunity to make their case to the county clerk for why their ballot should be counted,\u201d Wood said. \u201cThe county clerk must notify by certified mail each voter whose provisional ballot is not counted and the reason. The notification must be sent within 10 days of the election, and the voter will have until Friday, June 22, to appeal the decision to the county clerk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Provisional ballots are those voters fill out if they\u2019re at the wrong polling place or can\u2019t be found on the voter rolls for other locations. While most end up being disqualified, some are usually found to be cast by valid voters and are added to Election Day totals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Democratic primary in the race to replace outgoing Sen. David Ulibarri and the GOP battle for the right to take on Senate President Pro Tem Tim Jennings in November are still up in the air.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[156,107],"class_list":["post-40745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-2012-election","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40745","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=40745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40745\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}