Democracy for New Mexico

DPBC Ward & Precinct Election Date Set

The Democratic Party of Bernalillo County will hold its Ward and precinct elections from 6:30 to 8:30 PM on March 28, at various locations around town. Not all locations for the "cluster ward" meetings have been announced, but here's the list so far:

South Valley Cluster - Wards 10, 12A, 12B, 13A, 13B, 14A, 14B
Westside Community Center
1250 Isleta Blvd. SW

West Side Cluster – Wards 16A, 16B, 23A, 23B, 29
Taylor Ranch Community Center
4900 Kachina St. NW

North Valley Cluster – Wards 11A, 11B, 11C, 15A, 15B, 17A, 17B
Raymond Sanchez Center
9800 4th NW

Sandia Cluster: Wards 24A, 24B, 27A, 27B, 30A, 30B
IBEW Hall
4921 Alexander Blvd. NE

Highlands Cluster - Wards 18A, 18B, 19A, 19B, 25A, 25B, 26
Plumbers Hall
510 San Pedro SE

The meeting locations of two additional clusters have not yet been finalized. I'll be updating this information when we receive it.

If you are planning on running for precinct or ward chair, or if you want to vote on the candidates running for these positions in your ward, please attend these meetings. Click to find out you are in. Use your precinct number to find .

(This information was received via email from the DPBC. An Official Call concerning the ward and precinct meetings should legally set out this information but I haven't seen one yet.)

NOTE: ALSO CHECK UPDATE ABOVE.

State Domestic Partner Retiree Health Insurance Defeated

The NM Senate Judiciary Committee met last night and voted 6 - 4 to table SB 340, the State Domestic Partner Retiree Health Insurance amendment. (This bill would have permitted domestic partners to enroll and receive healthcare benefits under the retirement program.) Democratic Senators McSorley, Lopez, Grubesic, and Sanchez voted for the bill; Democratic Senators Rainaldi and Martinez voted with Republican Senators Adair, Cravens, Harden, and Payne to table the bill. Tabling the bill essentially kills it in this session.

Click for contact information for Senate Judiciary Committee members.

It looks like SB 576, Domestic Partner Benefits, and SB 597, the "simple" DOMA, will be heard at the earliest on Friday, March 4.

(Based on information from Equality New Mexico.)

Tell Voting Machine Companies to Be Patriotic

From Velvet Revolution:
On February 21, 2005 (President's Day), Velvet Revolution sent a letter to each of the nine major American Voting Machine companies -- (Advanced Voting Solutions, Diebold, Danaher-Guardian, Election Systems & Software [ES&S], HartInterCivic, MicroVote, Sequoia Voting Systems, Triad GSI and UniLect Corp) -- asking them to do the right thing for our country!

In short, our letter gives the companies 60 days to take the following patriotic actions: (See this page.)

Voluntarily open their hardware and software for independent public inspection and analysis.

Provide auditable, voter-verified paper ballots for all votes cast.

Assure that there can be no form of networking on their machines.

Allow for non-partisan, independent monitors of the vote tabulation process.

Institute a corporate policy prohibiting the company and all of its executives from supporting candidates for public office or political action groups.

Disclose all data, codes and records from the last three national elections, if requested.

Adopt all feasible best practices suggested by a national committee of experts.

Do all of the above at no extra cost to their governmental clients with which they work.

If the companies publicly commit to all of the above within the 60 days, we will broadly recognize them for their efforts.

If, however, they choose not to take these steps to ensure free, fair and transparent elections in America, then VR -- along, we hope, with all of you! -- will encourage all Americans to (1) divest from these companies and those with which they are affiliated, and (2) participate in a massive national boycott targeting them, their affiliates and their clients. We will also launch an extensive education campaign for the American public explaining the ways in which these companies are secretly doing the public's business of handling elections in the world's most important democracy!

VR has the support of more than 80 Affiliate organizations in this effort, representing millions of Americans, and more are joining up every day! If you or your org has not yet joined, do so now. Also, please join the revolution by sending an email to all nine companies stating your support of this campaign at www.velvetrevolution.us/mailing.php?Mailing=05FC507D500021102290C.

VR also asks for all donations you can make towards funding this effort! We're all in this democracy together, and without you, we're nothing!

And so begins the revolution...