Startling Report on NM Election Points to Widespread Problems and Irregularities

Did you know that 1 out of 20 votes for President in New Mexico was "lost"?

Did you know that 1 out of 11 votes of Hispanic citizens in Bernalillo county was "lost"?

Did you know that 1 out of 12 Native American votes for President was lost in New Mexico?

Did you know that research shows that the different voting machine types used in New Mexico precincts are correlated with different kinds of voting errors and that New Mexico is planning on spending tens of thousands of dollars to buy new machines before 2006?

All this and more is included in the detailed and well-documented "A Summary Report on New Mexico State Election Data," prepared by Ellen Theisen and Warren Steward for www.HelpAmericaRecount.org. The report, dated 1/4/05, was released last week at press conferences in Santa Fe and Albuquerque, along with a brief summary of its findings. Click for a pdf file of this amazing and disturbing 12-page report.

According to the brief summary report

Analysis of the official New Mexico State election data reveals a pattern of stunning errors and severe irregularities in the election data. Until the paper ballots are examined and the electronic voting data verified, the canvass report certified by the State of New Mexico cannot be regarded as an accurate reflection of the will of the people.

Other findings include:

Excessively high numbers of undervotes (ballots with no vote recorded for president) suggest that thousands of votes may not have been counted. For example, none of Dona Ana County's 207 overseas absentee ballots reported a presidential vote.

Although only 41% of the state's voters cast their ballots on push-button electronic voting machines (Shouptronic and Advantage), these machines accounted for 77% of the presidential undervotes, raising doubts about their accuracy.

Although NM Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron has stated that the auditor they hired to review the election results found nothing amiss, the auditor's letter says they found 233 errors in the data provided for absentee precincts and that the data compiled by Dona Ana County contained 222 errors. Click for a copy of the Audit letter from Robert J. Rivera, CPA.

The Green and LIbertarian presidential candidates have filed with the Appeals Court in NM to allow their requested recount to proceed. No action has yet been taken by the court and there has been no word on when they will consider hearing the case.

Thanks to Sonja Elison for information used in this report, which was presented at the DFA-DFNM Meetup on January 5th. Her organization, New Mexico Democratic Friends, will be spearheading an effort to push for real election reform at the upcoming NM Legislative Session. DFNM will be working with them on this, so keep on eye out on this blog for more information on this effort.