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Friday, November 03, 2006
Federal Agents Dispatched to Albuquerque for Election
Guest blogger Suzanne Prescott reports:
Bernalillo County Clerk election coordinator, Jeff Carbajal, confirmed that Albuquerque is among the 65 cities to which 800 election observers from the Dept of Justice will be dispatched on election day. As reported on Air America Radio, the agents are being sent to areas that have been deemed potential trouble spots.
The exact precinct(s) where agents will appear will not be known until the morning of the election when precinct presiding judges receive their precinct election material, according to Carbajal.
Some questions remain to be answered:
- How were so-called potential trouble spots identified?
- What evidence will they be looking for that confirms or denies the existence of trouble?
- Why can't we know beforehand where observers will be dispatched?
Suggestion: When you vote ask if any federal DoJ observers are present and if so record the time and leave a comment here to document your observation or email drhodgepodge@comcast.net
November 3, 2006 at 06:55 PM in Election Reform & Voting, Guest Blogger | Permalink
Comments
There... finally managed to get my early vote in yesterday evening. I wish I could help more in the activism end of things, but my work scheduling does suck. My next day off is on election day itself. Maybe I can do something then.
Anyway, this story doesn't bother me too much, but it does make me wary. What really got me nervous (and pissed) was the last general election when the Republican party put challengers at some polling locations. That in itself should have been written off as voter intimidation.
Posted by: | Nov 3, 2006 8:49:57 PM
Republicans have assembled a large number of "vote challengers" here and around the nation for this election as well. We all know what that means. One of the ways they "win" is by intimidating Democratic voters. I understand some challengers on the Democratic side have been encouraged to participate to offset what may well turn into hassling of voters by the rightwing goons.
Posted by: I Vote | Nov 4, 2006 11:12:01 AM
This may seem out of line, but isn't it time that the military or national guard be posted at polling places to prevent poll watcher and challenger interference?
Posted by: marc | Nov 4, 2006 4:04:14 PM
Military or National Guard at polling locations would be out of line in a legal sense of the term. What we do need however is some sort of neutral security people trained in election laws (federal agents of some sort, preferably), and to tell any challengers or party/candidate representatives to just cast their own votes, then get the hell out of the polling locations. Like I said, federal agents are not necessarily a bad thing... the concern is their loyalties and to whom they answer.
Posted by: | Nov 4, 2006 5:36:47 PM
The Presiding Judge has all the authority needed to deal with watchers and challengers. It could be up to and including having them removed from the polling place if they are disruptive in any way.
Posted by: VP | Nov 4, 2006 9:05:31 PM
Remember.
The FEDS are GOP.
They have unlimmited wire-tap. If they have not found illegalities on Patricia by now, they can just make something up.
But it would do New Mexican citizens esp. lab employees to realize that the state is better off with our congressmen in the majority party.
Personally, I am not worried because Patricia Madrid's Mom is praying that God's will be done. Her faith is honed to a keen edge of power having had 2 sons in Vietnam.
I have faith in her faith.
Posted by: qofdisks | Nov 8, 2006 4:48:44 PM
