Democracy for New Mexico

Final Results of 2008 NM Dem Caucus: Clinton by 1,709 Votes

Hillary Clinton pulled out a squeaker in the popular vote, winning by a margin of 1,709 votes out of a total of 149,779 votes cast in New Mexico's February 5th caucus. Clinton won 48.80% to Obama's 47.66% in the statewide vote counting election day, absentee and provisional ballots. Obama won NM-01 in the Albuquerque area and NM-03 in Northern NM, while Clinton won NM-02 in Southern NM.

Obama won Bernalillo, Catron, Los Alamos, Sandoval, Santa Fe and Taos Counties, while Clinton won the rest. It was extremely close in Socorro County where Clinton got 692 votes to Obama's 688, or a four-vote difference. Clinton won a total of 14 pledged delegates to Obama's 12.

John Edwards got a total of 2,157 votes, so if a majority of those voting for him had switched to Obama after Edwards withdrew, Barack would have won New Mexico's popular vote. Bill Richardson got 1,305 votes and Dennis Kucinich 574, with scattered votes for the other original Dem contenders, write-ins, etc.

From the Democratic Party of New Mexico
Thursday, February 14, 2008, Albuquerque, New Mexico

Today, ahead of deadline, the Democratic Party announced the canvass results of the 2008 Democratic Caucus.

“With this caucus, New Mexicans had the chance to hear directly from two historic candidates for the presidency,” said Chairman Colón. “Democrats had the opportunity to select the next President of the United States. With two great candidates to choose from, we had the largest turnout in the last 20 years or more. New Mexico Democrats have spoken and here is what they have to say.”

Statewide totals for the 2008 Democratic Caucus:

Barack Obama	71,396
John Edwards	2,157
Christopher Dodd	81
Dennis Kucinich	574
Bill Richardson	1305
Joe Biden	122
Hillary Clinton	73,105

At the start of the process, both campaigns and the Democratic party formed an agreement to make sure the vote counting process was fair, consistent and transparent.  Volunteers worked over 2,250 hours to find registered voters, and were able to find 8,200 voter registrations. After a preliminary review of provisional ballots--Twenty percent had either already voted absentee or had failed to attach an affidavit to their ballot, and eight percent of provisional voters were not registered.

“The biggest surprise of this caucus was the more than 3,500 voters---Independents, Greens and Republicans---tried to vote in the Democratic Caucus,” said Chairman Brian Colón. “Clearly, their message to us was---they want change in this country.  My message to them is ‘We couldn’t agree more.  While we couldn’t accept your vote in our Democratic caucus, we welcome your vote at the general election this November.’” [emphasis mine]

DOWNLOAD A PDF OF STATEWIDE TOTALS HERE

DOWNLOAD A PDF OF COUNTY WIDE TOTALS HERE

(Updated) NM Dem Caucus: All Unofficial Results Except Provisionals

UPDATE 2/14/08: See the final numbers released by the Democratic Party of New Mexico, including all ballots including provisionals.
***********
Yesterday, the Chairman of the Democratic Party of New Mexico Brian S. Colón announced that the final totals for the regular and absentee ballots. See below the fold for the tallies.

“Today’s canvass results for regular and absentee ballots provide hard evidence that New Mexico Democrats are ready for change in the White House,” said Chairman Colón.  “From ending the war in Iraq to providing solutions on health care and education, these two candidates have energized Democrats in every part of our state.  With an official turnout of 54% more than the last caucus, the 2008 Democratic Caucus turnout was absolutely unprecedented.”

In this year’s Democratic Caucus, a total of 157,354 cast an absentee, regular or provisional ballot for a Democratic Presidential candidate. Whereas, according to final tallies from the Democratic Party approximately 102,100 Democrats voted in the 2004 Caucus.

“These canvass results also confirm the regular results from election night, and the quality of the work done by volunteers in the middle of an unprecedented turnout,” said Chairman Brian Colón.  “Each of these votes have been scanned into a computer, tabulated and where there was an undetermined vote, members of both campaigns and a caucus judge reviewed the result—and I appreciate their commitment to accuracy and fairness.”

The provisional ballots are still being qualified. Approximately 7,000 out of more than 17,200 provisional ballots have been qualified so far. Volunteers are conducting a second search of the voter file to assure every registered vote counts.

17,276 Provisional Ballots are currently in the process of being qualified and scanned. Counting of the provisional ballots is began today and is expected to be finished late today or sometime tomorrow.

Statewide
Democratic Party of NM Democratic Caucus Canvass Results
(Unofficial, Do NOT include provisional ballots)

Absentee Ballots
Barack Obama 1,593
John Edwards 646
Christopher Dodd 3
Dennis Kucinich 103
Bill Richardson 61
Joe Biden 7
Hillary Clinton 1,648
Write-In 3
Uncommitted 0
Undervote/Overvote 0
TOTAL 4,082

Regular Ballots
Barack Obama 65,417
John Edwards 1,424
Christopher Dodd 67
Dennis Kucinich 433
Bill Richardson 1,175
Joe Biden 105
Hillary Clinton 66,436
Write-In 184
Uncommitted 398
Undervote/Overvote 375
TOTAL 136,014

Regular and Absentee Ballots
Barack Obama 67,010
John Edwards 2,070
Christopher Dodd 70
Dennis Kucinich 536
Bill Richardson 1,236
Joe Biden 112
Hillary Clinton 68,084
Write-In 187
Uncommitted 398
Undervote/Overvote 375
TOTAL 140,078

Chaotic Dem Caucuses Were Held In ...

This is from today's Albuquerque Journal column by Jim Belshaw:

So, with confusion as our motif, we move on to the Democratic caucus. First, a few descriptive passages:"

• "Complete chaos."
• "The decision to have only one caucus site ... appears to have been a bad one."
• "Caucus leaders ... are allowing people to vote by blue slip."
• "Confusion reigns."

That was in Nebraska, not New Mexico. The quoted material comes from a newspaper reporter at the Omaha World-Herald.

Let's try another caucus.

• "We ran out of chairs."
• "We ran out of sign-in sheets."
• "We ran out of pens."
• "We ran out of tables."
• "We ran out of everything here except for people ... I had to climb up on the table and shout. I felt like I was under siege ..."

That's not New Mexico, either. It comes from a Democratic caucus worker in Washington state.

Then there was Maine. A reader of the Talking Points Memo blog checked in via iPhone at the beginning of the Democratic caucus:

"I am at the Portland caucus now and things here are very chaotic," he wrote. "The line stretched around the block 30 minutes before the doors opened and now encircles the entire block. There are far more people trying to get in than the high school can hold."

Something's going on out there, no?

Readers wrote in with thoughts on the New Mexico Democratic caucus, some with complaints, one with a bit of whimsy ("What if we called this caucus 'a practice session' and just put Clinton and Obama back on the regular primary ballot for June?").

One said the voting in Corrales was smooth and easy.

Another volunteered to work in the caucus. (Remember, the whole thing was done by volunteers in New Mexico.)

Find fault if you must, and even if the faults you find are on target, I think the Omaha World-Herald reporter was on to something when she wrote: "They (voters) say that despite the confusion and the traffic woes, most people were happy and in good spirits. They were just glad to be a part of something that was big."

That sounds right to me.

Today's Potomac Primaries: DC, Maryland, Virginia, Plus Democrats Abroad

Dem presidential primaries are underway today in the District of Columbia (15 delegates), Maryland (70 deleagates) and Virginia (83 delegates). Also, the final results of balloting conducted at various locations overseas by Democrats Abroad (7 delegates) are due. All eyes are on Barack Obama to see if he will sweep the contests today as he swept the four held this past weekend by large margins. Recent polling shows him with substantial leads over Hillary Clinton in both Maryland and Virginia. No recent polling has been done in DC, but earlier caucuses there demonstrated strong support for Obama. Voting sites in Maryland and DC close at 6PM MST and in Virginia at 5 PM MS. CNN will have results tonight.

NM Caucus: 15,100 Provisional Ballots Checked

If you'd like to volunteer to help with provisional ballot qualifying at REDW in Albuquerque or donate some snacks or beverages for the volunteers, click for more info. They need all the help they can get to finalize the process before the Party's February 15th deadline for certification.

Yesterday afternoon, the Chairman of the Democratic Party of New Mexico Brian S. Colón announced that the Party made further progress with the qualification of provisional ballots. The qualification process works to assure that voters are registered and have not already cast a ballot.

“We’ve made significant progress qualifying provisional ballots,” said Chairman Colón. “Our volunteers have checked more than 15,100 provisional ballots and identified 5,466 registered Democrats—so far. At the same time, we are conducting a second search to a more extensive database to make sure that we count those provisional voters who are registered and have not already cast a ballot.”

Since the day after the caucus, over one hundred volunteers have donated over 281 shifts to help the process of verifying and counting the votes of the record Democratic turnout on February 5th.

“We remain committed to providing accurate results, as quickly as possible.” said Chairman Colón. “The outpouring of volunteer support has been critical to this effort.”

The Democratic Party of New Mexico and its volunteers will continue working approximately 16 hours per day until the election results are certified.

Turnout Huge: Obama Takes Maine

Waiting in line, Maine caucus

Despite snow, cold and big winds, Maine Dems packed caucus sites yesterday and gave Obama his fifth victory of the weekend, which also included Obama wins Saturday in Washington State, Louisiana, Nebraska and the Virgin Islands. The win in Maine was something of an upset for Obama, as recent external and internal polling had shown Clinton with a significant lead. He ended up besting Clinton by a margin of 59% to 40%, or 15 delegates to her 9. Check below the fold for a list of the states so far won by each candidate, along with their winning margins. According to the a statement by Obama's campaign manager David Plouffe:

Obama has now won 20 contests to Clinton’s 11; he’s won a larger share of the popular vote; and he’s projected to more than triple his current pledged delegate lead since Super Tuesday from 27 pledged delegates to 84, a net gain of 57 pledged delegates. This weekend’s net gain of 57 pledged delegates represents more than the 42 delegate net gain that Clinton won in Massachusetts, New Jersey, Tennessee and Arizona – combined.

Oh, and guess what? There were still outstanding precincts in Maine's vote totals reported today -- this in a place where Dems have been running caucuses for decades and there were 420 locations in a state that fits in one tiny corner of New Mexico. Turnout was so huge that sites in Portland, Bangor and other places across the state had lines snaking out the doors and many people were forced to stand out in the stormy weather waiting to get in.

The turnout was high at many caucus sites, despite harsh weather. Many people in Maine's 420 cities and towns were taking part in the state's delegate-selection process for the first time, driven to participate by excitement over the highly competitive race.

"If it wasn't so close I wouldn't vote," said Mark Antoine, who waited more than an hour in line at the state's largest caucus site, Portland High School, to cast his vote for Obama. Antoine, 20, said it was the first time he had participated in any election. There was no parking for several blocks around the school, and some stood in slushy snow and shivered in lines that extended around the block.

According to a story in the Portland Herald:

More than 46,000 voters, including 4,000 who cast absentee ballots, participated in the caucuses, easily breaking the record of 17,000 from 2004.

We exceeded that in a way none of us could have foreseen," said Arden Manning, executive director of Maine's Democratic Party. "Democrats really want something different, and they want something new. That's why they attended in such high numbers."

... The record voter turnout in Maine plus the bad weather led to long lines and confusion at many caucus sites about how a caucus works. The caucus at Cape Elizabeth High School started an hour behind schedule. Caucusgoers waited in two lines snaking out the door even as a wet snow started to fall shortly after 1 p.m.

Portland High School was mobbed with voters three hours before the caucus was scheduled to begin. A line of people stretched from inside the building to outside in the falling snow, with the end of the line falling on Congress Street -- three blocks from the school's Cumberland Avenue entrance. Inside, the school's athletic teams held bake sales as some voters clamored for seats inside the gymnasium and many others figured out where to register.

Packed Maine caucus

Big Dem Turnouts Cause Probems All Across America
Sound familiar? Recall that many of the Nevada caucus sites were so chaotic, people gave up and went home, and an investigation will be conducted by the Nevada Dem Party to look into irregularities. Reports were rampant about people being given incorrect info at the sites about how to vote and who could vote. In California, problems in Los Angeles with a "double bubble" ballot used by non-Dem voters resulted in up to 94,500 ballots being rejected. In several states the Democratic Party websites tracking the results of the contests were so overrun with visitors that they crashed early in the process and stayed down for hours. As of yesterday, only 89% of precincts had reported certified results from Minnesota's February 5th caucuses. In some states, it's still unclear how many delegates have been allocated to each candidate. I could go on.

Why haven't these problems been trumpeted continually by the media? One reason -- the contests in these places weren't close enough for the problems to make much of a difference. Here in New Mexico, however, with only about a thousand-vote margin separating Clinton and Obama, the spotlight glares on with judges from both campaigns monitoring the process closely. Thankfully, the rules negotiated to qualify the more than 17,000 provisional ballots that were cast will result in ballots being rejected for only the most glaring errors. In a number of other states, authorities have taken the opposite view. It's much harder to qualify and count messy, complicated provisional ballots than it is to toss them out or leave them unprocessed, as happened in New Mexico's 2004 Dem caucus.

Candidate wins as of today and margins of victory:

Clinton (10)
Arkansas +43
Oklahoma +24
New York +17
Massachusetts +15
Tennessee +13
California +10
New Jersey +10
Arizona +9
Nevada +6
New Hampshire +3

Obama (19)
Idaho +62
Alaska +50
Kansas +48
Washington +37
Georgia +36
Nebraska +36
Colorado +35
Minnesota +35
Illinois+32
South Carolina +32
North Dakota +24
Louisiana +21
Maine +18
Utah +18
Alabama +14
Delaware +10
Iowa +9
Connecticut +4
Missouri +1

Status of NM Dem Prez Caucus: Calling All Albuquerque Area Dems

Nancy Denker of Focus Ink and other vols processing provisionals

Volunteers are still needed from now until at least Tuesday to help count New Mexico Caucus provisional ballots. The task is taking place at the offices of REDW, located at 6401 Jefferson St. NE, Albuquerque, NM 87109 (map), (505) 998-3200. Please call Robert Adams at (505) 975-8780 if you'd like to volunteer for a shift. 

Netroots Challenge to Democrats: The dozens of volunteers, judges and staffers who are taking shifts -- sometimes very long ones -- processing and qualifying Caucus provisional ballots at REDW for 16 hours a day can get very hungry and thirsty. Can we help keep them hydrated and fed? Are you up to the challenge? Whether you can devote some time to the provisional ballot process or not, think about bringing over a donation of fruits, veggies, cheeses, crackers, juices, soft drinks, munchies, pizza, sandwiches or whatever strikes your fancy.

If you'd like, call Robert Adams at 975-8780 to see what's needed, or just stop by with the goods. You know what they always say about Democrats -- we may not always be superbly organized but we do have a tradition of supporting one another. (Hat tip to Anni Smith for the suggestion.)

Where Do We Stand in the Count?
Yesterday the Chairman of Democratic Party of New Mexico Brian Colón announced that the Party had initiated the qualification of provisional ballots. This is the process of assuring that voters are registered and have not already cast a ballot. Earlier Saturday, the Party completed the processing of the provisional ballots, and has already completed the canvass of regular and absentee ballots. 

"Saturday, with the work of scores of volunteers, we began qualifying provisional ballots to ensure that every vote counts," said Chairman Colón. "Voters waited for hours to send a message that's its time for a change in the White House, we must work for hours and days, to make sure their vote counts. Through this qualification process, we will assure that every registered voter's ballot will be counted."

With the help of several dozen volunteers working on several shifts covering 16 hours per day, the Democratic Party of New Mexico has completed the following phases within the vote-counting and certification process:

• Established an agreement with ground rules between the two parties;
• Completed the scanning of more than 137,000 voter signatures;
• Completed the counting of more than 141,000 regular and absentee votes; and
• Processed over 17,200 provisional ballots, which is the first step before qualifying and tabulating the provisional ballots.

"Some may criticize our agreement with the two campaigns for being too inclusive, but the rules of the caucus, and the Democratic Party of New Mexico are built on inclusion," said Colón. "We fundamentally believe that every registered vote should count. The Democratic Party and the two campaigns have an agreement based on inclusion."

The Democratic Party of New Mexico will continue working through the weekend approximately 16 hours per day until the election results are certified.

All photos taken at REDW on Saturday, February 9, 2008 by M.E. Broderick.

To read our previous coverage on Democratic presidential primaries and caucuses, visit our archive.

(Updated) 2/9/08 Dem Prez Contests: LA, NE, WA, VI

Note: Volunteers are needed to help count New Mexico Caucus provisional ballots at REDW in Albuquerque. Click for more info.

UPDATE: Barack Obama increased his already formidable momentum by sweeping all four contests by large margins. Data from CNN:

Louisiana Primary
Obama:  57%,  33 delegates
Clinton:  36%,  22 delegates

Nebraska Caucuses
Obama:  68%,  16 delegates
Clinton:  32%,  8 delegates

Washington State Caucuses
Obama:  68%,  35 delegates
Clinton  32%,  15 delegates

Virgin Islands Convention
Obama:  3 delegates
Clinton:  0 delegates

*************
If you're interested in tracking the voting and delegate projections in the three states and one territory holding Dem presidential nominee contests today, this diary on Daily Kos features neat graphs that will update as results come in later today. (You'll have to refresh the page.) Also check out the dynamic with the data that will generate the graphs. There will also be results on CNN and MSNBC.

Louisiana has a primary, Washington State and Nebraska hold caucuses and the Virgin Islands conduct a unique territorial convention to determine the allocation of delegates to the Democratic convention this August. More info below.

February 9, 2008 Democratic contests:

-- Louisiana primary: 56 delegates at stake. (37 proportional by CD, 15% threshold; 19 based on statewide vote, 15% threshold.) Independents cannot vote. Polls open at 7:00 AM ET and close at 9:00 PM ET.

-- Nebraska caucuses: 24 delegates at stake. (16 delegates selected as a result of the caucuses proportionally by CD, of which there are 3, 15% threshold; other 8 are selected at the June 28 state convention based on preferences of state convention delegates, 15% threshold.) There is same-day registration at the caucuses, and they operate similar to how they do in Iowa. Caucusing begins as early as 11:00 AM ET and they end as late as 9:30 PM ET.

-- Virgin Islands territorial convention: 3 delegates at stake. (Proportional by statewide vote, 15% threshold. There are actually 6 pledged delegates, who will be seated at the national convention, but their votes only count for half.)

-- Washington caucuses: 78 delegates at stake. (Multi-tiered caucus. 51 proportional by CD, no threshold; 27 elected at state convention by the 51 CD delegates and those 27 will be selected proportionally by the statewide vote.) Voters sign a party declaration same day as the caucuses. Caucusing begins at 4:00 PM ET, and we should have results no later than 9:00 PM ET.

Via MyDD, with leaked Obama campaign predictions:

            Obama (delegates)       Clinton (delegates)

Louisiana    54% (31)                 44% (25)
Nebraska     60% (15)                 40% (9)
Virgin Isl.     60% (2)                  40% (1)
Washington  60% (49)                 40% (29)

NM Dem Prez Caucus: What's Happening Now

Voters at Montezuma Elementary in Albuquerque

Volunteers are needed to help count provisional ballots at RDEW in Albuquerque. Click for more info.

Attorneys for the Clinton and Obama campaigns, State Democratic Party officials, various staffers, temporary workers and volunteers are continuing to labor at the accounting firm of RDEW in Albuquerque to produce a final, official tally of the votes cast in New Mexico's February 5th Democratic Presidential Preference Caucus.

Regular paper ballots had been handcounted at the Caucus sites after voting closed on Tuesday. The results were then phoned in to Dem Party headquarters that night, where the tallies were recorded. This constituted the "unofficial count." Next the ballots had to be run through optical scan tabulators, and the results compared with the handcount totals. The signatures of those who signed in to vote at the Caucus sites are being scanned into a computer to produce a master list showing who cast a ballot. There's also a listing of the folks who voted by absentee (mail-in) ballot.

Provisional Ballot Count
Workers are expected to begin sometime today to examine more than 17,276 provisional ballots. The special ballots were used by people who a) showed up to vote but weren't on the registered voter rolls, b) were at the wrong Caucus site or c) had requested an absentee (mail-in) ballot but failed to return it and voted in person instead. The latest update of New Mexico's vote count was released yesterday morning and does not contain any provisional ballots.

Standards for Qualifying Provisional Ballots
Campaign attorneys and Dem Party officials spent the past few days negotiating standards that will be used to judge whether a provisional ballot qualifies as legitimate or must be tossed out. The standards were designed to reject only those provisionals that are obviously illegitimate -- not those that may exhibit minor errors like a missing middle initial. The aim was to be inclusive, transparent, consistent and fair.

Provisional ballot analysis will determine whether the vote was made by a registered Democrat, and whether the individual had voted previously at another Caucus site or via absentee. The Party's registered Democrat voter list has reportedly been rechecked to make sure it contains the names of all the Dems on the Secretary of State's official list. According to Kate Nash, these are the main standards released by the State Party that will govern provisional ballot qualification:

1. The absence of either an inner or outer envelope is not dispositive as to the disqualification of a provisional ballot.

2. The absence of a signature on an affidavit is not dispositive as to the disqualification of a provisional ballot.

3. The absence of the use of the official DPNM affidavit is not dispositive as to the disqualification of a provisional ballot.

4. The absence of the use of the official DPNM provisional ballot is not dispositive as to the disqualification of a provisional ballot.

5. A discrepancy as to the correct congressional district is not dispositive as to the disqualification of a provisional ballot.

6. In accordance with the philosophy of inclusion, if a link can be made between the name of a voter and that voter's provisional ballot, that ballot will be qualified and counted in the tally unless:

a. It cannot be demonstrated within a reasonable degree of certainty that the provisional voter was registered and eligible to participate in the February 5, 2008 caucus;

b. It can be demonstrated within a reasonable degree of certainty that the provisional voter cast another ballot, whether absentee, emergency, regular, or other provisional ballot.

The Party's deadline for certifying the Caucus results is February 15th, and it may take that long to finish the provisional ballot qualification process.

Photo Credit: AP Photo/Jake Schoellkopf

(Updated) ACTION ALERT: Help Needed to Count Caucus Ballots

ATTENTION ALL
Volunteers needed to come to REDW
And help count provisional ballots.
6401 Jefferson St NE
Albuquerque, NM 87109
(505) 998-3200

Please call me at 975-8780 if you can help today, tomorrow or Saturday.
Today until 7pm
Tomorrow 7am - 7pm Friday  7am - 3pm , 7 - 10 pm
Saturday 7am - 7pm  Saturday 7am - 3pm, 7-10 pm
(hat tip to Mr. Terrell for updated times)

Thanks! Robert Adams