Democracy for New Mexico

Important NM Recount Press Conference in Santa Fe on Tuesday

On Tuesday, January 4, NOON at the Capitol Rotunda in Santa Fe, Help America Recount will be holding a press conference regarding the Audit of the Canvass commissioned by the Secretary of State. Despite the Secretary of State stating that the audit showed the election went well, facts to the contrary confirm our conclusions.

Support NM Recount Press Conference & Rally on Wednesday in ABQ

From Casey Reed:
On Wednesday, January 5, at NOON at the Press Club in Albuquerque:

Help America Recount will be providing the evidence of highly suspect machine incidents at the press conference / rally (bring your signs)

The address is 201 Highland Park Dr. SE.  Members of the public are welcome.  Take 1-25 south to the Dr. Martin Luther King exit, turn right at the light.  You'll be heading toward Memorial hospital.  Turn South on Elm.  Elm turns into Highland Park   circle.  It's a Log Cabin. Click here for map.

REMINDER: CRITICAL ACTION STEP FOR NEXT WEEK !!!!

Call Senator Bingaman TODAY to urge him to support Congressman John Conyers' challenge to the January 6th electoral vote count. See our previous post about this by clicking here.

Also, continue calls to the Governor's office (505) 476-2200 *** Give us the 10% option ... recount 10% of the vote / we pay cash !

And continue calls to the Secretary of State's office (Rebecca Vigil-Jiron) ... (505) 827-3600

NOTE:  CALLS FROM OUT OF STATE ARE WELCOME !!!

Please email recount@newmexico.com with suggestions of how to make our efforts successful !!!

Mitch Buszek
NM State Coordinator
Help America Recount
(505) 204--0833

ACTION ALERT: Call Senators TODAY to Challenge 1/6 Ohio Electoral Vote Count

Congressman John Conyers will be seeking senatorial support to challenge the January 6th electoral vote count. Our very own Senator Bingaman is on that list of Senators that Conyers hopes to convince. This is important -- please click on link and sign. Our Senators and the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary: www.ContestTheVote.org.

When Congress reconvenes in January, at least 14 members of the House of Representatives will challenge the validity of the 2004 election. They will request an immediate investigation into many problems and irregularities encountered in the election.

According to the Electoral Count Act of 1887, one Senator and one House Representative are required to contest an election prior to inauguration. We have the representatives; we still need a senator. Please let your senators know that you want them to stand up with House Representatives and contest the vote.

The signed petitions will be delivered to each senator in person by a coalition of representatives from a variety of concerned organizations and individuals. We will also deliver copies of signed petitions from all states to the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary to encourage them to hold formal hearings on the 2004 election.

To insure a debate in Washington, D.C. re: the legitimacy of Ohio's count, we need Senator Bingaman to challenge the Electoral College Delegation.  Contact the Senator Bingaman's office ASAP and ask him to support the Conyers effort. Ask Sen. Bingaman to speak up on January 6th and "to object to the counting of the Ohio votes, due to numerous unexplained irregularities in the Ohio presidential vote, many of which appear to violate both federal and state law."

        Senator Jeff Bingaman
        FAX  (202) 224-2852
        PHONE  (202) 224-5521
        Capitol Switchboard 1-800-839-5276
        www.senate.gov/~bingaman (for email using his form)
        senator_bingaman@bingaman.senate.gov (for email without his form)

        Faxing him would be best at this point.

        This is also the time to call Bingaman's field rep in your area.

        You can find the numbers for the Senator's field offices here.

(Thanks to Andrea Sterling for the heads up.)

NM Phantom Vote Problems Make Buzzflash

A reader contribution on Buzzflash describes the problems in NM with "phantom votes." Read it here.

NM Recount Goes Back to Court

From the Common Dreams News Wire:

NEW MEXICO -- December 28 -- Attorneys for Green Party presidential candidate David Cobb will file a Notice of Appeal on Tuesday from a District Court decision which rejected Cobb's request to start the New Mexico recount without paying the entire cost of it in advance. Last week the New Mexico Supreme Court declined to hear the case. Since the Supreme Court did not rule on the merits of the case, it can be heard by the New Mexico Court of Appeals.
[. . .]
"We believe the law is on our side and look forward to a full recount of the presidential vote. There are still many unanswered questions about provisional ballots, missing votes and the integrity of voting machines which don't produce a paper trail. The people of New Mexico deserve to know that their votes will be counted fairly and accurately," said Cobb.

On Tuesday, Cobb and Badnarik's attorneys will also be notifying the New Mexico Secretary of State, the Attorney General and the Clerks for all of New Mexico's 33 counties, that the Notice of Appeal prevents them from "opening and clearing" voting machines throughout the state.

"Although, generally, voting machines can be cleared 30 days after the official certification of the vote, New Mexico law is clear that this can't happen when a recount has been initiated. The candidates have paid the deposit for the recount and we expect it to go forward, so any adjustment to the machines would be clearly inappropriate until the recount has been concluded," said Lowell Finley, one of the attorneys representing the candidates.

For more information about the Cobb-LaMarche campaign and its recount efforts in New Mexico and Ohio, see https://www.votecobb.org.

UPDATE: NM Counties to Begin "Clearing" Voting Machines?

UPDATE: According to a post on Democratic Underground, the attorneys of record (Lowell Finley, John Boyd, David Garcia) filed an appeal to the original suit in District Court (different from the Supreme Court case and still open for appeal) and sent letters to the SoS and each of the 33 county election directors to make sure the machines could not be purged. As long as there's an active recount request, it's illegal to erase the previous election without a court order.

In addition, an ABC News affliate is reporting :

Green and Libertarian presidential candidates are still pursuing their legal fight for a ballot recount in New Mexico and plan to take their case to the state Court of Appeals. Lawyers for Green Party candidate David Cobb and Libertarian candidate Michael Badnarik say they intend to file a notice of appeal with the court.

Also, the Bernalillo County Clerk has now stated that the voting machines won't be cleared until the Supreme Court rules on the recount. Apparently it's all in the lawyers' hands now, so it's been requested that we stop calling county clerks and the secretary of state's office at this time. As it stands, the machines are being protected until the courts respond to the recount suits.

Recap on NM Recount Saga

A diary at Daily Kos provides a top-notch recap of what has gone on in the continuing saga of the Green and Libertarian Party efforts to obtain a legally required recount of the presidential vote in New Mexico. The diary is written by Claude Hayward of Anton Chico, whom I was pleased to break bread (well, actually pizza) with at Il Vicinco recently at a gathering of New Mexico's Kossians.

The lastest twists in this story of Gov. Richardson's refusal to follow the law, in collusion with Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Griron and other high-ranking Democrats, is revealed in a 12/24 Albuquerque Journal story detailing a high percentage of so-called overvotes and "phantom" votes in New Mexico.

Green Party candidate David Cobb said he may take this case to the U.S. Supreme Court and Cobb's lawyer said they may still post the $1.4 million "deposit" required by the NM Canvassing Board for the recount. A lawyer for the state, however, says the deadline for that is long past and the state will not reconsider.

Cobb's attorney, Lowell Finley, says in the article, "As far as we're concerned, this is not over. And we are going to continue pursuing every reasonable, available option to see that there's a meaningful audit of this election."

Read all the details in Claude's diary.

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.

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?

Albuquerque Count Our Vote Rally at Noon TODAY

There's planning going on to have an Albuquerque version of the Count Our Vote rally that's happening at the Roundhouse in Santa Fe at Noon Sunday 12/19. In Albuquerque, the protest would be at the Federal courthouse downtown at Noon. For more information call Casey Reed, who's involved in the NM recount effort, at 505-344-8492.

UPDATE: The Albuquerque protest is on. Bring your signs and yourself to Lomas and Fourth Street downtown at the Courthouse at Noon.