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Wednesday, November 15, 2006

County Disqualifies Hundreds of Ballots in Wilson-Madrid Race

By Melanie Dabovich/
Associated Press
      Bernalillo County election officials on Wednesday finished reviewing more than 3,700 ballots in the tight race for the 1st Congressional District, and they disqualified more than a fifth of them for various reasons.
    Republican Rep. Heather Wilson has maintained a 1,487-vote lead since last week, and with some 845 ballots disqualified, challenger Patricia Madrid has fewer outstanding ballots to overtake the incumbent.
    The disqualified ballots include provisional ballots and so-called in-lieu-of ballots, which are given to voters who requested absentee ballots but showed up at polls to vote anyway on Election Day.
    The disqualifications leave 1,494 provisionals and 997 in-lieu-of ballots to be counted. Elections workers also plan to review roughly 420 ballots that are considered "suspended,'' meaning the final decision on whether they were disqualified was pending.
    The tallying of qualified ballots started late Wednesday, and County Clerk Mary Herrera expected to be done with the county's canvass by Friday afternoon.
    "There are processes we have to follow and it's time consuming,'' she said.
    Herrera added that the tallying was expected to take even more time since the county's computers and phone systems were down Wednesday evening.
    But unlike previous days when the tension was high, election workers were more jovial Wednesday as they neared the apparent end of the counting process.
    Herrera, who was elected secretary of state in the Nov. 7 general election, noted that Bernalillo County — the state's largest — continues to grows each year and that has made it more difficult for her office to meet the canvas deadline.
    As for the 1st District race, Democrats have said the remaining provisional ballots could benefit Madrid's campaign to unseat Wilson, who declared victory last Thursday. But Republicans remain confident that the remaining ballots won't be enough for Madrid to catch up.

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