Serious counting irregularities in Bernalillo County [NM(01) Congressional Race]

[solara]

There is a serious problem in New Mexico with the hand count of ballots. Please kick this so it will get noticed. The Republican candidate, Heather Wilson has already claimed victory and is being supported by the news media. But it is clear that not only have the ballots -not- been counted, there is a serious problem with the organization and integrity of the process.

Friday, November 10, 2006

THE FOLLOWING WAS WRITTEN BY TERRY RILEY.  ALSO CONTRIBUTING TO THIS POST IS ANNE KASS AND CARTER BUNDY OF WHAT THEY HAVE EXPERIENCED AT THE ELECTION COUNTING WAREHOUSE:


FROM TERRY RILEY:


I worked on Monday opening absentee ballots at the Bernalillo County election warehouse.  I worked on Wednesday counting absentee ballots.  After about two hours of work our table of four noticed that we had a tally sheet that had two votes for each ballot position and only one ballot had been counted. 

On Wednesday morning the tally packs consisted of groups of ballots that had already been tallied, tally sheets and ballots that had not been counted yet.  Our procedure was to spread out a tally packet into a stack of already counted ballots, the tally sheets and the ballots to be counted.  The pre-counted ballots had a sticky-note with the number of ballots counted, the date they were counted and signatures of the ballot reader and the tally marker.  We checked to see that the number of ballots equaled what the sticky-note indicated.  We then added a tally of the ballots that had not yet been counted.

We were on our fourth packet and we noticed that there was only one ballot yet there were two vote tallies on the tally sheet.  We then rechecked the packets that we had already processed and found that every one of them had votes marked and not enough ballots to support them.

(More at the Link)

http://www.democracyfornewmexico.com/democracy_for_new_mexico/2006/11/serious_countin.html

[sce56]

1. Maybe you could call the govenors office he is a demcrat is he not?

[solara]

2. Yes he is, but I find it hard to believe that

Governor Richardson doesn't already know about this. I guess I am just trying to generate some outside interest. Of course I will call him tomorrow. I don't know .. this just feels like it is slipping through the cracks and I don't get it.

[sce56]

3. Humm Why not just call the police? It is a crime to miscount the ballots is it not?

[WaterDog]

5. Too funny!

LOL! Don't you mean screwn?
Great graphics, sce56! :rofl:

[sce56]

9. Hey I just stole it from another site so don't blame me for mispellings if that is true!

Look at the properties to see where they come from...

see they got the date wrong on this one too!

[upi402]

6. LOL -yes, most screwn

:rofl:

[AIJ Alom]

4. Interesting. Curious as to whom is getting the additional votes.

Any ideas ?

[eridani]

7. Calling all hard-core hand-count only people!

It's the checks and balances, not the particular method!!!

[ret5hd]

27. so you doubt the wisdom...

of having actual physical ballots in front of you? that can be physically counted?

I want a recount!!!

OK...(click)...see, same as before!

I want a recount again!!!

OK...(click)...see, same as before again!

I want to count them myself!!!

OK...(hands him/her the mouse)...(click)

See, i told you, same as before again.

[eridani]

28. Optical scanning has paper ballots that can be hand-counted

It is more accurate than handcounting for multiple races, and a handcount audit gives you two methods of validating the results. More confidence that way, just as a paleontologist has more confidence in a date determined by both counting tree rings and carbon-14 dating.

[alittlelark]

8. I'm from NM - my sis said there were 3000 outstanding and Wilson

was ahead by 1000 (approx 3pm PT).


Do I need to get my NM family in the street? My sis was saying that it was sad, but that the polls had showed them neck to neck at the end, so most ppl are just 'accepting'.

[Lasher]

11. According to CNN Wilson (R) is ahead by 1,487 votes

Here's a link: http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2006//pages/results/states/NM/index.html

[solara]

12. Thanks for that link n/t

[solara]

10. (Mini-rant) According to these reports

the ballots aren't all being counted and if they are, they are being counted haphazardly and without oversight by both parties. I guess it is not considered a problem since the Dems already won the House, and New Mexico is not Virginia and Repug Rep. Heather Wilson has already proclaimed herself the victor with media support. I wonder why anyone bothers to count the ballots at all? Hell, why even -have- an election?

Sorry, I am just very discouraged.


:banghead:

[alittlelark]

13. I will encourage you to stick w/ it!!!!

PLEASE! If it gets more hairy please post... both NM papers are Repukaganda in NM. If I need to get the family involved - please tell me why in the AM - I've had almost a full bottle of wine and need to sleep now..

[autorank]

14. A little history on that county and its voting problems...

New Mexico Law Suit Delves Inside Voting Machines Nov. 3, 2006

Will My Vote Count?

The problem of vote switching, losing your vote based on the type of machine you use and, perhaps, your ethnic identity and location, is troubling in a nation where universal access to voting was once thought to be the political gold standard. In this case, the more things change, the more they seem to come undone.

The Help America Vote Act was heralded as the solution to the problems that emerged in the Florida 2000 presidential contest. Hanging chads and endless recounts of flawed punch card ballots would never occur again, we were promised. In point of fact, the real scandal of Florida 2000 was not the hanging chads; it was the racially based “felon purge” conducted by Secretary of State Katherine Harris’ office. This resulted in the denial of voting rights to 57,000 black Floridians, Floridians who had committed no crime but were wrongly identified as felons. That “purge” was a race crime, denying one ethnic group its right to vote.

The problems in New Mexico represent the automated version of ethnically based voter disenfranchisement. Now, instead of tens of thousands losing their rights all at once, the votes are being denied to tens of thousands of minority voters’ one precinct at a time.

The voter who took 45 minutes to make sure her vote was cast in the New Mexico 1st Congressional District summed it up nicely:

If I were an elderly person, or a young first time voter, I might not have known what to do, or how to take the actions that I took. I might have simply gone forward with the voting process, and thought to just let that one vote for Heather Wilson go unnoticed as well as the malfunctioning machine.

[threadkillaz]

15. ABQnews Blog

http://www.abqjournal.com/abqnews/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1713&Itemid=2

[rosesaylavee]

16. K & R n/t

[Hugin]

17. My opinion on this...

If Heather "Janet's boob made me cry" Wilson is so anxious to get back to be
a minority member of the House.

Let her go... She still has to answer to her part in the 'Page Scandal'.
I'm sure the investigations will lead to some interesting findings.

Why someone would cheat so hard to send a minority party representative
to Washington to keep the State in it's perpetual second class status...
Is beyond me.

Wilson's staff was part of the 'wall pounding' in FL in 2000... Along with
John Bolton et al. So, she's not above cheating in an election.

[robinlynne]

19. No. If you accept election fraud, you get a fascist government. Didn't the last

6 years show you that?

[ChiciB1]

20. I Agree With You... We Still Have Re-count Going On Here In My

County.... Sarasota! I just posted the latest news from Jennings herself!

[Hugin]

25. Hey, nobody is more for fair elections than I am...

The ABQJournal, Research&Polling, and KOAT machine has been keeping
District 1 in Republican hands since it began 40 years ago... This
NEEDS to be changed. Those statistics are suspect, somewhere along
the line some Democrat should have won at least once. Especially,
because the majority of voters in that district are Democrats.

It seems like I always go to bed on the night of the election with
the Democrat ahead and when I wake up in the morning... The Republican
has crept into the lead by a slim margin based on... The Absentee Ballots.
EVERY TIME!

This time we have the ballots to see what is really happening. The
counting and investigation must continue.

Unfortunately for Heather... Denny ain't on the other end to sanctify
the crime, as in the special election to replace Duke Cunningham in
San Diego.

[NMDemDist2]

18. Mary Herrara (D) just won as SOS and is the County Clerk there

She needs some calls and emails to insure her last election as clerk is RIGHT before she's allowed to run the elections in the whole state

Bernalillo county didn't have enough ballots to start the day 11/7 cuz IMHO Mary was too busy campaigning for her new job to do her old job

Call her office and get down there and request open recounts. she ran on the statement she had the knowledge of how to run elections!

[solara]

22. That's good advice, however we need an initial count

before we can have a recount ....Dammit..... she is a Dem.. she should be ALL over this!

[Nimrod2005]

21. k

[Vinca]

23. Call the media!

Television, newspaper, anyone. Call the state attorney general. Call the damn FBI. This is terrible.

[janx]

24. This is ridiculous.

I looked at the links, and I've been wondering...why are so many *early votes* uncounted? I voted early and voted using an absentee ballot that was stamped "early voter"--but I put the ballot through the machine.

What is it about the early votes? :shrug:

[all.of.me]

26. kicking

Wilson was so pompous/arrogant/pathetic to claim a victory on Thursday night when all the papers were saying the ballots had not been counted and could not be counted by law until Friday. She is a piece of work. These counting errors make me sick.