Democracy for New Mexico

Can You Give A Day For Election Integrity (and Get Paid for It)?

From Vote Trust USA:

Urgent Action Alert!
The primary season that ended in Hawaii on Saturday has been plagued with ballot programming errors, machines that failed to boot up, vote totals that didn’t make sense, and frustrated voters and candidates in states across the country. But in the weeks leading up to the general election, citizens in every state are coming together to take back our democracy and ensure that every eligible voter can cast a ballot that counts on November 7. Now's your chance to join them by signing up to be a Pollworker for Democracy.

Click here to find out more about the Pollworkers for Democracy Campaign.

HAs a Pollworker, you can witness first hand and work to prevent problems like these -- which occurred in primary elections this year -- and report them when they can't be prevented.

Diebold machines, notorious for their security flaws, were routinely sent home with pollworkers for "sleepovers" days before the election. Across the country, from Kern County CA to Monroe County MD poll openings were delayed and voters turned away for hours, until missing equipment was finally delivered ... in one case by helicopter! From Coast to Coast, problems were reported with every brand of voting system, as machines froze up, lost votes and registered votes incorrectly.

VoteTrustUSA and our partner organizations have created the "Pollworkers for Democracy" project -- a nonpartisan effort to get concerned citizens directly involved in supporting our elections -- in order to support our democracy. We'll provide you with information and resources to supplement your pollworker training -- and also a system to report and track any problems on election day.

In states across the country, almost every county is still in urgent need of pollworkers for the November 7th general election. By signing up as a pollworker, you can support our democratic system ... and get paid at the same time!

Click here to find out more about the Pollworkers for Democracy Campaign.

The average age of pollworkers in the United States is 72. There are many long-time pollworkers in every county waiting for the opportunity to pass on their wisdom and experience to the next generation of citizen pollworkers. As our voting systems become more complicated and less transparent, it behooves us as citizens to step in and help our democracy work.

Please share this information with your friends, neighbors and relatives!! Thank you for working with VoteTrust USA to defend our democracy.

Joan Krawitz, Executive Director
VoteTrustUSA.com

P.S. VoteTrustUSA and the Pollworkers for Democracy campaign depend on you! Even if you can't work the polls, I hope you'll consider making a donation to support this critical project. Please click here to donate now.

Pollworkers for Democracy is a non-partisan election integrity campaign of VoteTrustUSA, Mainstreet Moms, and Working Assets.

A Peek at Our New Voting Machines

This is a guest blog by Suzanne Prescott:
The September 13th election official training for the September 19 APS bond election included an added surprise - those who attended got a look at the new voting machines which will be used in the November general election. Hand-completed paper ballots will be tabulated by an optical scanner. The training leader explained that he was fond of the old machines and had programmed them himself. However he said the new machines would work well and proceeded to demonstrate what the voting process would be like with the new machines.

He said nothing about the concerns raised by election reform groups but did mention that his office had received phone calls with concerns about using paper ballots. To be fair, since the machines are brand new the trainer had not had much experience handling questions about the machines. When asked about the cost he said each machine cost $3250.00. But then a person asked how election officials should respond if a voter asked how he/she could be sure that their ballot had cast their vote accurately. The trainer verbally tap danced for a bit and finally patted the new machine's "tub" (where the actual paper ballots are stored by the machine) and said that the physical paper ballots were safe inside the machine. However, look at the key hanging from the machine's "tub" in the picture - not confidence inspiring. 

They also unveiled (it really was covered with a cloth) the machine which will be used to help disabled voters.

The trainer concluded by saying the actual voting process for the November election involved many details which they had not yet received from current Secretary of State, Rebecca Vigil-Giron.  He added that there will be additional trainings on the new machines prior to the November election.

Help Out With Election and Get Paid
They still need more election officials for the November election. They could really use your help. If you can help, call the Bernalillo County Clerk, Mary Herrera’s office at 505 468-1291. It pays $125. for the day plus the training session.

This is a guest blog by Suzanne Prescott, who contributes often to the discussion here. If you'd like to submit an article for consideration as a guest blog, contact me by clicking on the Email Me link on the upper left-hand corner of our main page.

Required Reading on Election Horrors in NM and Elsewhere

'Recipe for a Cooked Election' by Greg Palast in Yes! magazine. The article includes a compelling discussion of documented voting problems at Taos Pueblo and other parts of New Mexico.

Block the Vote: Tonight on PBS' NOW

NOW, the weekly PBS news magazine, will air 'Block the Vote' tonight, a segment focusing on some of the many tactics being employed to block the participation of voters, especially minorities, the poor, the elderly and the disabled. KUNM KNME (Channel 5) will broadcast NOW at 8:00 PM tonight, September 1st, and PBS will provide a video stream of the show after it airs. To read more about tonight's show or watch the video later, visit the PBS website.

Report: NM Interim Legislative Committee Discussion on Election Day Registration

From Paul Stokes, United Voters NM:
On Friday 11 August, Election Day Registration (EDR) was discussed with the New Mexico legislative interim committee on Courts, Corrections, and Justice. This is the interim committee to which election reform issues were assigned by the Legislative Council.

Common Cause New Mexico joined United Voters of New Mexico and Verified Voting New Mexico in arranging for this discussion. Matt Brix, Executive Director of Common Cause New Mexico, arranged to have Larry Ghan, County Commissioner from Bannock County, Idaho, explain to the interim committee his experience in establishing and using EDR in his state.

Mr. Ghan said that EDR is very popular and very successful in Idaho. He noted that the possibility of voter fraud may be the greatest concern people have about EDR, but that has not been a problem in Idaho; in fact, he said that there had been no instances of voter fraud related to EDR.

He further said that EDR is consistent with a fundamental aspect of democracy to provide the opportunity to vote to as many citizens as possible. The increase in voter turnout from the experience of Idaho and other states with EDR is in the range or 10 to 15 percent.

Other points he made included the fact that EDR eliminates the rush to register at the office of the county clerk prior to elections, and that candidates for election do not need to worry about who is and who is not registered and, instead, can concentrate on their messages to the electorate.

In the following discussion, Ernie Marquez, state Bureau of Elections director, said that the office of the Secretary of State had no objection to EDR, but suggested that now might not be the time because of all the other changes taking place with our elections.

Some legislators asked questions and expressed opinions regarding their concerns with voter fraud. For example, immigrants voting, inadequate time on election day to check out qualifications of voters, etc. These are familiar concerns, and Mr. Ghan's response was that they had not had any such problems, and that there should be a presumption that voters are qualified if they present the required documentation.

On the other hand, some legislators said that, on balance, EDR was the right thing because it enabled more qualified voters to vote. Rep. Chasey, who chaired the session, circulated an op-ed by Ornstein at the conservative American Enterprise Institute discussing the fact that a number of countries fine citizens who do not vote.

Ernie Marquez expressed his concern about EDR not allowing adequate time to check the qualifications of voters. He used the example of not being able to determine whether or not a potential voter is a felon, and also mentioned a case in which someone in New Mexico voted six
times.

Mary Herrera, Bernalillo County Clerk, said that it would not be possible to adequately check voter qualifications for EDR until a computerized database of voters was available. In the meantime, she supported the idea suggested by one legislator of having affidavits associated with the ballots of persons choosing EDR which would be set aside until the voter qualifications could be checked. This process would be similar to the way in which voters who elect to use absentee ballots, but do not receive their absentee ballots in the mail, are able to vote on election day.

To sum up, the experience with EDR as expressed by Larry Ghan, who was an election official when EDR was established in Idaho, has been very positive. Some legislators expressed concern about voter fraud, even though there is no evidence of significant voter fraud in EDR states - Idaho has had no voter fraud associated with EDR. Other legislators supported EDR because of its demonstrated ability to increase voter turnout.

My understanding is that the interim committee will decide at its November meeting whether to recommend EDR legislation for the 2007 legislative session.

Editor's Note: More information about Election Day Registration can be found at these sources:

• VoteJustice.org