Bernalillo County Discovers Uncounted Ballots

Bernalillo County alerted state officials late Friday that elections workers discovered about 125 unopened and uncounted absentee ballots.

Bobbi Shearer, elections director for the New Mexico Secretary of State’s Office, said the county discovered several bundles of absentee ballots — still in their envelopes — locked in a tub.

Elections workers will begin counting the ballots this morning and they will be incorporated into the official election returns, she said.

“We’ll be working with them to make sure all those ballots are accounted for,” she said.

Shearer said each county has procedures to follow for tracking each absentee ballot that’s issued.

“There are certainly chain-of-custody issues,” Shearer said. “… We don’t know yet where those procedures broke down.”

Deputy County Clerk Roman Montoya said the ballots aren’t from the closely contested House District 23.

“They will not affect any race outcome at all,” Montoya said.