Democracy for New Mexico

Kerry Enters Ohio Recount

According to William Rivers Pitt at truthout, Kerry is entering the Ohio recount in a significant way, by "filing  a request for expedited discover regarding Triad Systems voting marchines, as well as a motion for a preservation order to protect any and all discovery and preserve any evidence on this matter."

According to Pitt, "It should be noted that Kerry's filing of these requests does not indicate his complete entry into the recount process, but does clearly indicate that he is moving decisively in that direction. His previous stance on the matter was based simply on his desire to defend the right to have a recount in the first place. The evidence of election tampering in Ohio, specifically surrounding Triad, has motivated him to actively join the fight. The Democratic Party is also quietly putting financial resources into the Ohio recount effort.

Read more of this article.

NM Recount Denied by State Supreme Court

The NM Supreme Court has denied the request of the Green and Libertarian presidential candidates for a recount, as reported in this morning's Albuquerque Journal. No reason for the denial was given in their court order.

Justices Pamela B. Minzner, Patricio M. Serna, Richard C. Bosson and Judge James J. Wechsler concurred. Judge Michael D. Bustamante dissented. State Court of Appeals Judges Bustamante and Wechsler were named to replace Supreme Court Chief Justice Petra Maes and Justice Edward L. Chavez, who recused themselves.

The article quotes Governor Richardson's spokesman Billy Sparks as saying, "The governor believes now more than ever that it's time to look forward and focus on election reform in order to fix the significant problems that arose in the last election."

The Green Party's presidential candididate, David Cobb, said, "The law seemed clear. In fact the law is clear, and I think it's an example of Bill Richardson and the ruling elites of New Mexico simply making a decision that the law won't be followed and the Supreme Court going along with them."

According to the Cobb's attorney, there's still a chance that NM would accept the $1.4 million deposit, although he questioned whether that kind of money could be raised.

Desperately Seeking Senators

Progressive Democrats of America is asking progressives to urge Senators to challenge the Electoral College vote on January 6th. After you've read this post, go to the PDA website to take action, where they've made this easy to do.

From Progressive Democrats of America:

We all remember that early scene from Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 911", where one African American after another stands up in the well of the House to challenge the Florida vote from 2000, only to be ruled out of order due to the lack of a single signature from a single Senator.

Not this time.

On January 6, 2005, the House and Senate will once again meet to consider the electoral vote count. And once again, that vote count is likely to be challenged by a group of progressive House members, who will make the case that the misallocation of voting machines (especially in Ohio), the abuse of provisional balloting in numerous states, and the refusal and/or inability to conduct the recount in an open and auditable manner in Ohio, in Florida, and in so many other key states, mean that the certified electors should not be seated.

This time, we want several U.S. Senators to join with them, to make a serious voting rights challenge that the entire world will hear. This time, we want so much polite-but-firm grassroots contact from progressive voters beforehand that a whole group of Senators will choose to stand up and fight for the voting rights of African-Americans, Latinos, and youth voters that the Republican Party targeted for disruption and disenfranchisement in the 2004 election.

This time, we want several U.S. Senators to join with them, to make a serious voting rights challenge that the entire world will hear. This time, we want so much polite-but-firm grassroots contact from progressive voters beforehand that a whole group of Senators will choose to stand up and fight for the voting rights of African-Americans, Latinos, and youth voters that the Republican Party targeted for disruption and disenfranchisement in the 2004 election.

Some who need to hear from us are new, such as Barak Obama of Illinois and Ken Salazar of Colorado. These new Senators could use cover from the new leadership of the Senate, especially Dick Durbin, who also hails from Obama's home state.

Some Senators depend on African American and Latino votes to be elected, and thus could be expected to stand up tall when voting rights issues are on the line, including Joe Biden of Delaware, Carl Levin of Michigan, Bill Nelson of Florida, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, Barbara Mikulski and Paul Sarbanes of Maryland, Jon Corzine and Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey.

Senator Byrd of West Virginia was once a Klansman; but his eloquent leadership against the Iraq War has inspired us all, and he has the courage and fortitude to cap his career with an outspoken battle on behalf of abused African American voters. Senator Lieberman of Connecticut rightfully brags about his youthful efforts to register voters in the Old South in the 1960s; on 1/6/05, he will have the chance to demonstrate that his youthful idealism still survives.

There are Senators who are safe, and could do the right thing--like Chris Dodd of Connecticut, Daniel Inouye of Hawaii, Charles Schumer of New York, Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, and Herb Kohl of Wisconsin.

There is Jim Jeffords of Vermont, an Independent who was brave enough to stand up to the Bush White House once before. There is Senator Lincoln Chafee, a Republican in a solid Democratic state, the namesake of Lincoln, a moderate caught in a far right party.

And, of course, there is John Kerry.

To remind them why they're in Washington, click here. Ask them to stand for every American's right to vote (and have it counted.)

Thank you for forwarding this action alert to your networks.

Standing tall in solidarity,

Tim Carpenter
Progressive Democrats of America

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email: info@pdamerica.org

phone: (877) 368-9221

web: https://www.pdamerica.org

Richardson Slams Door on Recount Compromise

According to an article in this morning's Albuquerque Journal, Governor Bill Richardson has slammed the door on any compromise with the Green and Libertarian candidiates that would allow a partial recount in New Mexico's presidential election.

Richardson is quoted in the article as saying,

"I'm not accepting the compromise," Richardson said. "It's time to move on. Let them have a full recount, if they can come up with the money."

Ain't he sweet.

An appeal by the Green and Libertarian parties of the $1.4M advance payment requirement is before the NM Supreme Court. Although no hearing has yet been set, the court issued an order on Friday ordering the canvassing board to respond in writing to the lawsuit by Noon on Wednesday, December 22.

At a meeting of the Democratic Party of Bernalillo this past week, attendees got the Party line from Party officials about Richardson's decision on the recount -- he's doing the right thing by protecting New Mexican taxpayers from footing a million dollar bill for the recount! And there's no use fighting the decision because, well, you know why.

From the reactions of what seemed to be a majority of the crowd at that Party meeting, the Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party isn't happy, to say the least, about the responses of the DNC, Kerry and Richardson to the voting problems being uncovered and documented almost daily in several states. If the Democratic Party won't stand up for fair elections and against voter suppression, who will? 

I think this issue is one that could have helped build a good working relationship between the mainstream Democratic Party and the grassroots activists, volunteers and small donors who gave uncountable hours of volunteer time and between $30 and $50 millon in donations to the cause during the presidential race. Instead, the dismissive positions taken by Richardson and others will only serve to push people away from supporting the Party and guarantee that people will reserve alot of their faith, money and sweat for helping progressive groups increase their clout and leverage. What other choice to do we have?

Cobb Calls for Compromise in NM Recount

According to an article in today's Albuquerque Journal, the Green Party's David Cobb is negotiating for a compromise involving his suit to compel an immediate recount. He's proposing a partial recount of a 10 percent sample of the vote, with a full recount to follow if significant problems are discovered.

Quote:

"We know that there were extraordinary voting anomalies on precincts that used the new technology," Cobb said at a Santa Fe diner. Of particular concern, Cobb said, are voting machines that do not produce a paper trail; the so-called undervote, when some people vote for local offices but do not vote in the presidential race; and the reliability of optical scanning machines that count paper ballots.

Cobb and Badnarik did not meet the Thursday deadline for the $1.4 million deposit the NM Canvassing Board required for a full recount. Therefore, only a NM Supreme Court decision or a compromise with the Canvassing Board can make a recount possible. As of 5:00 PM on Thursday, the court had not acted on the matter nor scheduled a hearing. Justices Edward L. Chavez and Petra Maes have recused themselves on this case.

Quote from Cobb:

"Everything we have done has been an attempt to establish a cooperative relationship with elections administrators in this state," he said. "This is about auditing the machinery and the technology, and we really have been thwarted at every turn by the governor's office." (emphasis added)

New Culprit: Triad Voting Machines

Both truthout and Raw Story have articles today focusing on problems with Triad and their punchcard voting machines, which have been ignored with all the publicity that Diebold and others have received.

In the truthout piece, Proof of Ohio Election Fraud Exposed, it's reported that Triad is owned by Tod Rapp, a donor to both the Republican Party and the Bush election campaign. Besides manufacturing punch-card voting systems, Triad wrote the computer program that tallied the punch-card votes cast in 41 Ohio counties in November.

It goes on to provide testimony about very suspicious behavior by a Triad representative that was given by Green Party candidate, David Cobb, when he testified at the Conyers hearing held in Columbus. It relays what is called by Cobb a "shocking incident" in which the Triad rep takes apart a voting machine at an Ohio county board of elections office on December 10th and more. The source of Cobb's story has been identified as  Sherole Eaton, Hocking County deputy director of elections. The text of an affidavit signed by Eaton is included in the truthout story.

In response, Rep. John Conyers has asked the FBI and a county prosecutor in Ohio today to explore "inappropriate and likely illegal election tampering" in at least one and perhaps several Ohio counties. The truthout piece includes a copy of Conyer's letter.

The Raw Story article reports that "The lawyers for Green presidential candidate David Cobb and Libertarian presidential candidate Michael Badnarik, along with Kerry-Edwards 200, have added election tampering to a civil suit filed against the state of Ohio over problems with the state's recount."

This piece also features an affidavit included with the Cobb-Badnarik-Kerry filing by Professor of Computer Science Douglas Jones. Jones asserts that Triad Election Systems' visits to local Boards of Election "compromise the credibility and integrity of the Ohio recount." There's also a copy of the complete civil suit provided.

I think that both of these articles are well worth a read. Just when you think things can't get any stranger in terms of the 2004 election, they gets stranger.

(Thanks to Ron for the heads-up on these.)

Writ Denied in NM Recount Effort

From Sonja Elison:
Just heard from Rick Lass, the State Chair of the Green Party of NM. The judge denied the Writ of Mandamus, so the options are to appeal, to go to federal court (which is packed with Republican judges thanks to Sen. Dominici) or to get the $1.4 million surety bond.  The lawyers are conferring now.

DNC/Kerry's campaign number is 202-863-8000 if you'd like to urge them to donate the funds. Gov. Richardson's office number is 505-476-2200 if you'd like to comment on the NM Canvassing Board's decision not to allow the presidential race recount unless $1.4 million is paid by tomorrow at 10:00 AM. More contact information is contained in an earlier post on this site.

UPDATE: The Albuquerque Journal online just put up a story on this. Excerpt:

A lawyer for the Green and Libertarian presidential nominees who requested the recount said they would take their fight to the state Supreme Court unless some kind of compromise could be worked out with the board.

"I think the judge's decision does not comply with the law," Lowell Finley said.

He had argued that the board went beyond the law Tuesday when it voted to require the payment of $1.4 million by 10 a.m. Thursday.

Finley said the Greens and Libertarians are "fully prepared" to pay for the recount, but that the law requires a deposit of no more than the $114,400 they already have deposited.

Vigil said the $114,400 "has got your foot in the door," but that the board was within its rights to require more up front.

Finley said he would discuss with board lawyers the possibility of narrowing the recount request to review only a portion of the state's voting machines used in the Nov. 2 general election.

NM's Recount Prevention Department

From the Rocky Mountain Progressive Network (via our friend in Taos):

Bought and paid for in the Land of Enchantment -- why interfere with the process outright, when you can pretend to cooperate while raising the bar impossibly high?

This gets interesting -- according to the Institute on Money in State Politics website, Ms. Vigil-Giron's 6th largest campaign contributor in 2002 was one Ken Carbullido, vice president of Election Systems and Software (ES&S)...

Rebecca Vigil-Giron is a Democrat, and other major campaign contributors include the New Mexico Federation of Labor. If that initially throws you off the scent, it's understandable -- I did a double take before thinking it through. Welcome to the confounding world of American elections, where the conflicts of interest seem to wedge their way in, heedless of other affiliations.

PR Newswire, Sept 25, 2003

The New Mexico Secretary of State has awarded a five-year, multi-million dollar agreement to Election Systems & Software Inc. (ES&S), to build, deploy, and support a HAVA-compliant, centralized, real-time, statewide voter registration and election management system...

Such a cozy relationship, these Secretaries of State and their election-system benefactors. That isn't much of a secret:

Shortly after leaving office, former California Secretary of State Bill Jones sent letters to each member of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors, reassuring them that the electronic voting machines they wanted to buy were reliable.

One month after Jones sent the letters, the Republican became a paid consultant for Sequoia Voting Systems, a touch-screen manufacturer that was bidding for Santa Clara County's $19 million contract and ultimately won it.

Critics say Jones' move illustrates a troubling reality of elections in the electronic age: close, often invisible, bonds link election officials to the equipment companies they are supposed to regulate...

In addition to hiring former secretaries of state and their staffs, voting equipment companies help pay for a multitude of industry conferences, including those sponsored by organizations like the National Association of Secretaries of State, or NASS.

"Personally, I've known a lot of these people for a long time, and we've become a family," said Rebecca Vigil-Giron, New Mexico's secretary of state and NASS' president-elect.

According to an NASS spokeswoman, the fees paid by corporate sponsors such as Diebold, ES&S, IBM and Accenture account for more than half of the association's $420,000 budget.

When does this start to matter? About the time this same individual decides to ensure the products of these companies never get properly audited.

These recount efforts represent an priceless opportunity to study the large-scale implementation of a system both vital to our democracy, and imperiled by credible accusations of vulnerability -- or worse. If the systems work as well as the industry reps -- that is, the ones padding Ms. Vigil-Giron's expense account -- claim, then such an analysis would vindicate them -- and put these questions to bed.

Leads inevitably to a rather disturbing question, doesn't it? Perhaps answered in part by understanding these collusive links? Does New Mexico have the courage to ask it?

Richardson and Vigil-Giron Ask $1.4 MIL for Recount by Thursday Morning! PASS IT ON!

I just got a call from a friend reporting a conversation with someone who was at the NM Canvassing Board Meeting this evening at the Roundhouse in Santa Fe. Approval was given by the Board to allow the Green and Libertarian Party presidential candidates to have a recount here, IF THEY CAN COME UP WITH $1.4 MILLION BY THURSDAY MORNING.

The Board consists of Gov. Bill Richardson, Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron and Chief Justice of the NM Supreme NM Supreme Court -- all Democrats (at least in name). What can be on their minds in setting this outrageous up-front fee and time limit? It's certainly not ensuring that our votes count or that elections are fair and effectively run.

They can only be thinking that they don't want the attention of the national media focused on how poorly this election was actually run. On how a state with a Democratic governor was allowed to turn Red. On how inconsistent the rules were for accepting or rejecting provisional and absentee ballots. On what a terrible job Gov. Richardson and his Moving America Forward PAC did with turning out the Hispanic vote and convincing them to vote for Kerry. On how large numbers of touchscreen voting machines without paper trails were purchased by the Secretary of State despite all advice to the contrary. On how Rebecca Vigil-Giron spent almost $2 million on ads meant to educate voters but that primarily seemed to focus on showing her face and repeating her name. Even Heather Wilson didn't spend $2 million on her ads.

So what can we do now? We can donate NOW to Help America Recount, which is raising money for the recounts in NM and Ohio. We can pass this message on to everyone on our phone and email lists. We can write letters to the NM and national media criticizing how this matter is being handled by Gov. Richardson and the rest of the NM Canvassing Board.

And we can flood the offices of Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron and Governor Richardson with phone calls, emails and letters asking why Democrats would be siding with foes of the recount instead of with the people who put them into office in the first place. And why they kept saying the recount would cost up to $600,000 and suddenly change their tune at tonight's meeting to require payment of $1.4 million by tomorrow morning.

Contact Information:

Governor Bill Richardson:
Web Site: www.governor.state.nm.us
(To Email the Governor, go to the website above and click on "Email Gov. Richardson, or click here to go directly to the form on that page.)
State Capitol, Rm. 400
Santa Fe, NM 87501
Phone: (505) 476-2200
Fax: (505) 476-2226

Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron:
Web Site: www.sos.state.nm.us
Email: secstate@state.nm.us
State Capitol N. Annex, Ste. 300
Santa Fe, NM 87503
Phone: (505) 827-3600
FAX: (505) 827-3634

Easy links to use to contact media as well as local, state and national government officials: Capwiz

UPDATE: Here's the Albuquerque Journal's article on this.

NM Recount Delayed - Protests Today in SF

Passing along two reports from Santa Fe on the NM recount:

On Monday, 12/13, Judge Carol Vigil denied our request for a Writ of Mandamus to be issued ordering the State Canvassing Board to start the recount, citing the lack of immediacy in the case, since the state canvassing board is scheduled to meet today -- Tuesday, 12/14, at 5:00 PM.  She said that if the Canvassing Board did not adequately address our request for the recount, that we should come back to her court on Wednesday (12/15) at 8:30 AM.  She said she would keep jurisdiction of the case.

So let's show the Governor, the Secretary of State, and the Chief Justice of the New Mexico Supreme Court (the members of the State Canvassing Board) that we want every vote to count!

State Canvassing Board meets Tuesday, 12/14, at 5:00 PM at the Roundhouse. So come show support for making sure every vote counts. Make signs ... Make music ... Make sure our elected officials know we want assurance our votes counted !! For more info, call Rick Lass, (505) 920-0540
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Friends,
In court on Monday (in the NM vote recount hearing) Judge Carol Vigil ruled that she will wait for the Canvassing Board (comprised of Governor, Secretary of State and Supreme Court Justice) to meet tomorrow Tuesday at 5 PM and give them a chance to request a NM recount.  She expressed concern about the voting irregularities and agreed that if they did not give the order to recount she expected to see us in court again first thing Wednesday morning.

It is crucially important for us to show the Governor that there is a large grass roots support for the recount.  If he sees the evidence of this he might be swayed to approve the recount and we will avoid a much more difficult path of challenging him in court.

Please come to the State Capitol Roundhouse, 4th floor, today, Tuesday, 12/14, to encourage the Governor, Secretary of State and Chief Justice that the people want a recount!

The Ukrainians are on the streets, demonstrating by the hundreds of thousands! Our democracy is at stake all over this nation.  Ohio and New Mexico are stepping up to confront the fraud and corruption that are seeping into our voting system all over the country. Let's walk the talk. See you there!

No Peace without Justice. Forwarded from Consuelo Luz, Thank you. More info: Mitch Buszek: (505) 204-0833.
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You can read the Albuquerque Journal's article on Monday's court hearing, free for today only due to the Journal's subscription requirements. Excerpt:

The board's chairman, Gov. Bill Richardson, reiterated his opposition to a recount, saying it "will not reform our election laws."

At the very least, the Libertarian and Green presidential candidates who requested it should be made to pay its entire cost upfront, the governor said Monday. Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron has said that could be upwards of $600,000.

Representatives of the Green and Libertarian Parties have said that "money is no object."