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Thursday, February 28, 2008

N.M. Secretary of State Says Human Error, Revised Lists at Fault for Caucus Troubles

By Heather Clark/
Associated Press
      Secretary of State Mary Herrera said Thursday some reports of problems with voter lists in New Mexico's presidential caucus Feb. 5 were caused by human error and others by changes made to the databank of voter information after the state Democratic Party received it.
    Herrera said in an interview that her office is looking into reports from voters and poll workers of missing names on the voter registration lists in the Super Tuesday caucus, which was run and funded by the state Democratic Party.
    "I'm wanting to straighten this out because I am getting hundreds of e-mails from people who are very upset with the secretary of state's office, and this could discourage people from going out to the vote in the primary,'' Herrera said.
    Herrera said her office is working long hours to prepare manuals and procedures ahead of the June primary.
    "I feel that they (voters) can feel confident that their vote will count'' in the primary, she said.
    Herrera called on state Democratic Party Chairman Brian Colon to contact her "so we can straighten these things out.''
    A spokesman for the party said he could not immediately comment on Herrera's remarks.
    Democratic Party leaders have been criticized for their handling of the caucus, which was riddled with problems including too few ballots, long lines at polling places and a large number of provisional votes, which, along with the tight race, delayed the results for nine days.
    The results of the election — won narrowly by Hillary Rodham Clinton — weren't known until Feb. 14.
    The party has said it will investigate the troubles on caucus day and is trying to be helpful to voters who call with concerns. Colon and Gov. Bill Richardson have scheduled an April summit in Albuquerque to discuss the caucus, and Colon and Lt. Gov. Diane Denish are talking about forming a committee to review the caucus.
    The lists — where the names and addresses of voters are checked just before they are given ballots — determine who can cast a regular ballot versus a provisional ballot, which is checked against statewide voter rolls after an election.
    More than 17,000 provisional ballots were cast in the Feb. 5 caucus, which was run like a primary.
    In Mora County, where half the voters had to cast provisional ballots, about 1,000 Democrats — including state Auditor Hector Balderas — were stripped of their party affiliation in the county databank and their names did not show up on voter registration lists on caucus day.
    After a review, Herrera said she discovered the problem began July 27 when employees in the Mora County clerk's office accidentally removed voters' party affiliation while flagging names of voters in a previous election, which is routine maintenance done on the voter lists to keep them current.
    Mora County Clerk Charlotte Duran was not at work Thursday and did not immediately return a message left at her office.
    In Bernalillo County, two poll workers said they found many cases of longtime Democrats — who were regular voters and hadn't recently moved — that were not on the caucus voter lists.
    Herrera said a representative from the Bernalillo County clerk's office told her the office is checking on complaints of missing names and that about 75 percent of those names were on the county clerk's list, and thereby in the secretary of state's databank that was given to the Democratic Party on Jan. 22.
    Herrera said she thinks that a contractor hired by the Democratic Party to administer the election, TrueBallot, inadvertently left out some names as the company was working with the voter lists.
    However, Bernalillo County Clerk Maggie Toulouse Oliver said her office has not formally checked their voter lists against the Democrats' databank to see if there are any discrepancies in the county voter rolls.
    "We stand at the ready to do whatever we need to do to help figure out what happened,'' she said. "My office has an intense interest in getting to the bottom of this.''
    Since she took office, Toulouse Oliver said she has overseen three large elections, and the caucus is the first time concerns have been raised about possible problems with the lists.
    "Ultimately the interest to my office is to find out what happened so that that voting public can go into these upcoming elections with confidence in the list and the system,'' she said.

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