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Tuesday, February 05, 2008
(Updated) Results: 2008 Super Tuesday
Updated NM results from KOAT as of Wednesday morning (does not include almost 17,000 provisional ballots, which may or may not be valid, that will start being counted at Noon). Dem State Party Chair Brian Colon told the AP that results from four precincts were still being delayed this morning -- three from Rio Arriba County and one from Sandoval County. DPNM Results page.
Updated NM results from KOAT as of a few minutes before 1:00 AM:
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Updated as of Midnight Mountain Time:
Still waiting on New Mexico results. Most vote totals in from small or sparsely populated counties. Santa Fe is the only more populated county to report so far. Keep checking results at the NM Dem Party website. From the looks of things we'll probably have a pretty even delegate split between Obama and Clinton here. Here's the CNN exit polling on New Mexico, which shows a narrow Obama win.
Site Problems
Mary Ellen was a Caucus site manager and didn't get home until about 10 PM, tired to the bone and starving. No food at the site and no time to stop and send out for any or to consume it if any was at hand. No one could take any breaks as the voters just kept on coming from Noon to 7. She reports the volunteers she met from other sites were in the same shape after being completely overwhelmed all day.
It is a crazy thing for a party to try and run 184 voting sites across the state, plus all the rest that goes with a statewide election, with a volunteer staff that's maybe half of what it should be and only a few paid staffers. I mean half of what it should be with a normal turnout, not this huge one. There weren't enough tables, ballots, or just about anything else. This was awful for voters in many areas and awful for the volunteers trying to perform miracles with the numbers and resources they had.
Caucus volunteers were very hard to attract in places like Bernalillo County. People are busy. People aren't interested. People are content to leave the work to others and complain. The unpaid county and state officers worked like dogs, as did the paid state party staff. You can imagine which party members weren't around to help in any way. They all hold offices or are candidates or are "name" politicos or big Dem donors. No sign of them anywhere work was being done, or where a few pizzas or donuts might be welcome. Very troubling, to say the least. I wonder what the former presidential candidate and all his pals did all day and into the night. After all, a Caucus was originally his idea.
Right now:
CLINTON
Arizona
Arkansas
California
Massachusetts
New Jersey
New York
Oklahoma
Tennessee
OBAMA
Alabama
Alaska
Connecticut
Colorado
Delaware
Georgia
Idaho
Illinois
Kansas
Minnesota
Missouri
North Dakota
Utah
Basically, Clinton won states close to Arkansas and close to New York where the Clinton organization goes back years. California is a similar story, with the Clintons having spent many years nurturing their political network. Huge night for Obama, meeting or exceeding expectations while Clinton did the opposite. She didn't win enough states or by big enough margins where she did win to dominate, as had been expected up until the last few days. The Obama campaign had said if they could stay within 100 delegates of Hillary, it would be a big victory. Obama did much better than that.
MSNBC's political analyst last had projected delegate totals with Obama up by 4 delegates with an interpretation generous to the Clinton campaign and a warning it could change by 10 delegates either way. Truly an amazing achievement, most of which was accomplished during about a two-week period of surging numbers for Obama. Now the energies of the race move up an octave and the battle continues, delegate by delegate.
CNN will have results for all states here or you can visit the New Mexico page. Here's where the NM Dem Party's results will show up eventually. KNME will air a local results show from 7:00-8:00 PM tonight, along with a live stream online. Crooks and Liars has an easy to read table of nationwide results. I'm going to leave you to clicking for results on your own for now. I'm going to have dinner and relax in front of the TV. Wel, relax is probably the wrong word. Nervously stare at the tube is more like it. Hey, lots of others are live blogging this thing -- why repeat the results here! I'll check in later after more is revealed. It could be a long and bumpy night.
First Dem Projected Winner: Obama, Georgia (based on exit polling)
Continuing reports that Caucus turnout is strong around the state. In Albuquerque we're hearing that sites are running out of provisional ballots, and they're having difficulties obtaining more. Provisional ballots won't be counted until Wednesday because data has to be checked to ensure the votes are valid. The waits are in the general range of 30 minutes to an hour, with lines snaking through the sites and out the doors in some places. Caucus sites are open from Noon to 7:00 PM tonight. If you're in line by closing time, you'll be allowed to vote. If you need info on where to vote, check out our left-hand sidebar for links.
Problems are being reported in many voting sites nationwide, with unprecedented turnouts in many areas.
February 5, 2008 at 05:24 PM in 2008 Presidential Primary | Permalink
Comments
Huge, huge problems here in Rio Rancho and apparently around the metro area. All the fun of New Mexico elections.
Posted by: > | Feb 5, 2008 7:26:52 PM
No worries in El Dorado, at least early this afternoon. The poll workers were keeping it going like clockwork. Early returns, as of 8:45, seem to show Clinton and Obama winning roughly the same number of states: 8 apiece so far. What will happen in CA? And here at home? Is it possible that this could go all the way to the convention? The Northeast seems to love Clinton.
Posted by: John | Feb 5, 2008 8:51:37 PM
I don't have a problem with slow vote counts coming in. It's more important to count ALL the votes. Unfortuately, this thing was so poorly organized hundreds of people walked away from the RR precinct. They just couldn't or wouldn't wait for 3-4 hours. Disgraceful that Colon et al screwed this up and made it so difficult for people to vote.
I heard Denish and Colon both repeat the meme the "no on could have known the turnout would be so large." What? Have these morons not been watching turnouts in earlier voting states?
If Colon has a job at the end of this day I changing my registration to Independent. The NM Democratic leadership is a disgrace and deserve to lose elections if this is how they treat the people they represent.
Yes, I am really pissed that. Due to poor planning, hundreds of Democrats were effectively disenfranchised. SHAME!
Posted by: | Feb 6, 2008 7:51:08 AM
So Grand Panjandrum-did you volunteer to work at a caucus voting site, to prepare the voting materials, to count votes, field phone calls or any of the other work that's needed to put on a statewide event like the caucus? It was very hard to get even the minimum number of people needed to staff sites and do all these task despite many pleas for help. If you are into nurturing democracy and helping to make things run efficiently you have to step up to the plate and help. Too many people think they have a right to criticize without ever putting out any energy to help.
Posted by: Volunteer | Feb 6, 2008 9:45:09 AM
Yes, the wait was long in RR (I was there for about 3-1/2 hours), and I am concerned that many people left because of the time it took to vote. I believe that the volunteers did a good job with what they had to work with, and certainly it was not the fault of the volunteers that there were an inadequate number of voting locations.
Thanks to all who worked so long to make sure that those of us who waited got to vote!
Posted by: Dianne Goode | Feb 6, 2008 10:13:00 AM
Who benefited the most from this mess? Qui bono? The places where the worst messes occurred--where hundreds of voters gave up and walked away, where ballots became scraps of paper subject to challenge--were they more likely Obama or Clinton strongholds? I'm not one to jump quickly to conclusions or see convenient conspiracies, but this stinks. Turnouts in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina were huge. The party leaders here (Clinton supporters) saw the wave coming, but made preparations for only a fraction of the numbers that actually voted. It is hard to believe in the integrity of this vote.
I don't think the results of this will or should sit well with Obama voters, and I think this presages further discord and bad blood over the nomination that will spill into the Fall. (See post today on Americablog about the super delegates stealing the nomination process).
Posted by: Jim Scarantino | Feb 6, 2008 10:21:28 AM
Who knows, Jim, you may be right but I think there are a number of factors in play.
We have to remember that states like NH, Iowa and SC have very well funded parties that receive huge donations from the presidential candidates running there and financial support from members that's unheard of in a poor state like this. Iowa's summer steak fry hosted by Tom Harkin charges each campaign tens of thousands of dollars, for instance, to raise money for the caucuses, paid staffers, materials etc. NH and Iowa also have years of experience with this and a huge pool of volunteers and workers who have experience with the process.
Also, because these races get so much national attention and so many visits from candidates and media figures, many more people volunteer to help, to be a part of the hoopla. It's like pulling teeth to get people to volunteer for the grunt work here.
I think Richardson staying in the race so long was a major problem. No candidates organized or visited until the very end. There was very little interest on the part of voters here until very late. Absentee ballots trickled in at a slow pace, way below 2004 levels. Momentum didn't pick up until a week or two before Feb 5th.
Another problem was the scarcity of locations suitable and available for caucus sites. I understand it's very difficult to rent places short term, there are few appropriate community spaces here, etc. It was easier when there were more vacant storefronts and such. I've heard this is especially true for the West Side, where such spaces are at a premium.
That said, I don't think there's any excuse for having only one caucus site in Rio Rancho with just a few volunteers staffing it. It sure sounds like the worst problems were on the West Side generally, where it can be assumed Obama would be popular with independents and others.
Posted by: barb | Feb 6, 2008 10:54:25 AM
Well I WAS one of those Rio Rancho voters. I waited over FOUR hours to cast my vote. I saw plenty of voters walk away completly disenfranchised! When I got to the front of line and saw those battle-worn volunteers I pitched right in. I stayed until around 11 pm. It was a nightmare but I can tell you those volunteers were first rate! The party officals (elected and not) MUST be held accountable for this. There was plenty of time and notice to address these issues.
Posted by: hbbean | Feb 6, 2008 12:38:48 PM
@Volunter: No I did not volunteer. But don't be so thin-skinned. I did not say anything about volunteers who worked at the polling places. They were working there butts off and they deserve a lot of praise in a very bad situation.
What chaps my ass is the establishment politicos who completely mismanaged this caucus. ONE polling place for RR? Las Cruces had eleven! It was a disgrace. Bill Richardson has been out of the race since the day after NH. The state party watched elections across the country with RECORD turnout. Could they not have done a better job of thinking this through? I showed up at my polling place right before Noon because I knew it was going to be a big turnout. Democrats are motivated to vote this year because we have to great candidates running for President.
I look forward to voting for whomever the Democratic Presidential candidate turns out to be. I will do so proudly. The remainder of my ballot will be blank. The NM Democratic Party leadership is a disgrace.
Go read Heath Haussamen's latest post at his blog about the 3 boxes of Rio Arriba Country boxes that were left unlocked and unattended at the party apparatchiks home.
The NM Democratic Party deserves to lose a few elections until the become better organized and better managers. I hope incumbents have more primary challenges. It is clear to me we need new blood in the party.
Posted by: > | Feb 6, 2008 1:55:25 PM
Thanks for your hard work Barbara... I included you in a piece about yesterday's disaster. I think the state party should be ashamed of itself.
https://m-pyre.blogspot.com/2008/02/new-mexican-voters-deserve-better.html
Posted by: | Feb 6, 2008 2:33:39 PM
Thanks Maggie. Something tells me we're all in this together - the whole planet in fact. We all have to at least try and do our part!
Posted by: barb | Feb 6, 2008 4:47:05 PM
I was a site manager at Mescalero reservation in Otero. I made arrangements for our lunchand went and bought a big round sandwichfrom Sam'd club. I knew when it got to be 5 or 6 o'clock we'd be hungry again. I brought coffee and tea and a pot to make them in. which was appreciated by all. We only had about 80 voters but that was good. We also ran out of ballots and we copied more. We ran out of provisional forms and the envelopes they were to put in. We bought envelopes and marked them appropriately. One other problem we had was the voters and there were several showed us their voter card,yet their name did not appear on the voter roster. I was fortunate to a very great group of workers. As most of you know I am the Vice-Chair for CD2 and I take my position very seriously. We dealt with a difficult situation and were able to get through it. I don't believe we should have knee-jerk reaction and call for Chairman Colon's resignation. WE are going to have to resolve thes problems so they don't happen again. Especially the alleged situation in Rio Arriba county.Thanks Barb for allowing this forum. I anticipate we will be dicussing this in the immediate future. stephanie L. DuBois
Posted by: Stephanie DuBois | Feb 6, 2008 5:48:27 PM
Hi Stephanie - thanks for your report. The problem in many caucus sites in Bernalillo was overwhelming numbers. The site Mary Ellen managed had more than 1600 voters plus more provisionals. They couldn't even pause to get soft drinks because the line was so backed up.
I'm sure you handled your site very well, knowing you! Brian Colon has been such a wonderful chairman in so many ways it's unfortunate this happened.
Posted by: | Feb 6, 2008 6:07:25 PM
