{"id":488,"date":"2006-08-22T13:08:00","date_gmt":"2006-08-22T19:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/08\/ellins-details-plans-to-improve-county-elections\/"},"modified":"2006-08-22T13:08:00","modified_gmt":"2006-08-22T19:08:00","slug":"ellins-details-plans-to-improve-county-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/08\/ellins-details-plans-to-improve-county-elections\/","title":{"rendered":"Ellins details plans to improve county elections"},"content":{"rendered":"

The new Do\u00f1a<\/st1:placename> Ana<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placename><\/st1:place> elections supervisor told commissioners Tuesday that some staff reorganization, better training of poll workers and a county poll worker manual will help improve elections.<\/p>\n

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

Ellins revealed some details of the work of the elections task force at Tuesday\u2019s meeting. He said many of the problems with past elections in the county were due to errors by poll workers. The county is short qualified poll workers and people to train poll workers for the Nov. 7 General Election.<\/p>\n

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

Ellins said he needs six qualified trainers and currently has one.<\/p>\n

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

But those issues are being addressed, he said. One of the recommendations of the task force will be to create a supplemental handbook to the state\u2019s poll worker manual, which many poll workers have said isn\u2019t clear or helpful.<\/p>\n

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

And Ellins said his office will \u201cexhaust\u201d lists of people willing to work the polls provided by both major political parties before looking elsewhere, something that has not been done in the past.<\/p>\n

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

Republicans have complained extensively about being willing to work but not being called by the administration of County Clerk Rita Torres, a Democrat.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cThat will not happen this time,\u201d Ellins told commissioners.<\/p>\n

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

In addition to addressing past problems, Ellins said a \u201cformidable challenge\u201d will be figuring out how to deliver the new paper ballot equipment to each precinct the Friday before the election. That\u2019s about 10 pieces of equipment for each precinct \u2013 much more than was required under the old system.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cThis is going to be an interesting challenge from a security standpoint that we need to figure out, and haven\u2019t figured out yet,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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

Ellins said the office plans to add several new phone lines to deal with calls from the public and precincts.<\/p>\n

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

Asked about allegations of fraud in past elections, Ellins said he knows of no formal complaints to law enforcement, but acknowledged past problems.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cAt the very least, there have probably been some errors in data entry that may have led to votes being miscounted,\u201d Ellins said.<\/p>\n

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

Asked by Commissioner Bill McCamley if he has all the resources he needs, Ellins said his office \u201cmight need some more funding\u201d and said he may ask the commission to approve additional staffers for the November election. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The new Do\u00f1a Ana County elections supervisor told commissioners Tuesday that some staff reorganization, better training of poll workers and a county poll worker manual will help improve elections. Ellins revealed some details of the work of the elections task force at Tuesday\u2019s meeting. He said many of the problems with past elections in the […]<\/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-488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488","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=488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}