{"id":816,"date":"2006-11-07T10:50:00","date_gmt":"2006-11-07T16:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/11\/some-polls-open-late-when-workers-dont-show-up\/"},"modified":"2006-11-07T10:50:00","modified_gmt":"2006-11-07T16:50:00","slug":"some-polls-open-late-when-workers-dont-show-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/11\/some-polls-open-late-when-workers-dont-show-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Some polls open late when workers don’t show up"},"content":{"rendered":"

A number of polling places in Do\u00f1a<\/st1:PlaceName> Ana<\/st1:PlaceName> County<\/st1:PlaceName><\/st1:place> opened late this morning because workers didn\u2019t show up.<\/p>\n

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

That happened despite that fact that elections bureau staff confirmed with poll workers as recently as Monday that they would work today, said county spokesman Jess Williams.<\/p>\n

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

County staffers were sent to open some polling places, and some election challengers from the Democratic and Republican parties were recruited at the last minute to be poll workers. All polling places were open fairly quickly after problems were identified, Williams said.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cWe\u2019re up and running,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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

County Republican Party Chair Sid Goddard wasn\u2019t pleased.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cIt may not be as bad as the primary, but it sure as heck hasn\u2019t completely gone away,\u201d he said of elections problems.<\/p>\n

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

Goddard said the phones at the party\u2019s headquarters began ringing at 6 a.m. and haven\u2019t stopped. He said voters from Sunland<\/st1:PlaceName> Park<\/st1:PlaceType> were showing up to vote in La Union because their polling place in Sunland<\/st1:PlaceName> Park<\/st1:PlaceType><\/st1:place> wasn\u2019t open.<\/p>\n

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

County<\/st1:PlaceType> Democratic Party<\/st1:PlaceName> Chair Melinda Whitley said she made a call to the county shortly after 7 a.m. to report that a polling place in La Mesa<\/st1:City><\/st1:place> wasn\u2019t open, but the county was already aware of it and a worker was en route to open the site.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cThis is, of course, a horrible problem, and I can\u2019t understand why people wouldn\u2019t show up,\u201d Whitley said.<\/p>\n

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

Whitley said one Democratic challenger was recruited to be a poll worker at Valley<\/st1:PlaceType> View<\/st1:PlaceName> Elementary School<\/st1:PlaceType> in Las Cruces<\/st1:place><\/st1:City>. She said the party is willing to do \u201canything to help and get this done right.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Williams said an ink cartridge in a machine needed replaced at one polling place. While that is being done, voters are filling out emergency ballots that will be fed into the machine once the work is complete.<\/p>\n

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

There were also successes. One voter reported to me that he was the first to arrive at his Mesilla<\/st1:PlaceName> Park<\/st1:PlaceType><\/st1:place> polling place at 6:50 a.m. He said there were 10 people in line by the time the polling place opened about 7 a.m., and he voted without a problem.<\/p>\n

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

There were some last-minute antics as well. Republican House candidate Scott Witt awoke this morning to find that all signs for his campaign in his neighborhood had been torn out of people\u2019s yards \u2013 including his own \u2013 and tossed into the street.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cThat\u2019s so infantile,\u201d Whitley said, adding that Democratic sheriff candidate Ralph Misquez also reported that two large signs had been knocked over.<\/p>\n

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

I\u2019m heading out to visit a number of polling places. I\u2019ll let you know what I find.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A number of polling places in Do\u00f1a Ana County opened late this morning because workers didn\u2019t show up. That happened despite that fact that elections bureau staff confirmed with poll workers as recently as Monday that they would work today, said county spokesman Jess Williams. County staffers were sent to open some polling places, and […]<\/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-816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816","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=816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}