NM Democrats Can't Say How Many Scrap Paper Ballots Were Cast
By Tim Korte/
Associated Press
You've waited patiently in line to vote, only to be told your name can't be found on registration rolls. Worse, they've run out of ballots at your polling station.
What to do?
Just scribble your name on a scrap of paper, list your preferred candidate and sign an affidavit declaring you're a registered Democrat in New Mexico.
They're called handwritten ballots, and they were used — apparently in limited numbers — for the Democratic Party's presidential caucus.
An Associated Press survey of Democratic Party chairs in most of New Mexico's 33 counties confirmed reports that scrap-paper ballots were used in the Feb. 5 caucus after some polling sites ran out of ballots.
State Democratic chairman Brian Colon couldn't say exactly how many handwritten ballots were processed among the more than 17,000 provisionals reviewed during the nine-day count that ended Thursday with Hillary Clinton's victory.
"But if those scraps of paper were identified, if they were in there with a signed affidavit, then they were counted,'' Colon said. "If it was submitted properly, then by gosh we counted it.''
A spokesman for Secretary of State Mary Herrera said under New Mexico's voting laws, such balloting would be illegal in any state-run election.
It's difficult to determine how many handwritten ballots were submitted. Dona Ana County officials reported one while the answer was "more than one'' in San Juan County and "some'' in Bernalillo County. Many counties reported none.
Without knowing exactly how many handwritten ballots were ruled valid, it's impossible to say what role such votes played in the election and whether there was a threat to the credibility of the outcome.
Clinton outpolled Barack Obama by a margin of just 1,709 votes.
"I'd want to know how many of these blank pieces of paper there were,'' said Election Data Services president Kim Brace, a consultant in Washington, D.C., who has studied election administration issues for more than 30 years.
"But you had the advantage in New Mexico of a single office you're voting on,'' Brace said. "In a normal election, you'd have multiple offices, and it makes that situation much more dicey.''
It's impossible to estimate how many scrap-paper ballots were submitted, simply because the Democrats didn't keep track.
"We didn't do that,'' Colon said. "We didn't put them in piles and say, 'These qualify as scrap-paper ballots, these qualify as copies of ballots and these qualify as regular ballots.'''
At first, adding handwritten ballots to the tabulation might seem haphazard in an election already littered with voting problems. New Mexico's caucus was plagued by long lines and lack of supplies at many polling sites.
However, Brace characterized the scrap-paper ballot practice as rare but not extraordinary, saying it occurred in the District of Columbia during last week's Potomac primary.
"There were some instances in D.C. of blank pieces of paper being used for substituting ballots,'' Brace said. "They went in as provisionals, to be verified as prim and proper.''
Colon said the key to ensuring an accurate count is having the voter sign an affidavit.
Yet anytime handwritten ballots are needed, Brace said it's because of larger voting problems.
"That's usually what takes place in a last-minute situation,'' he said.
The decision to count qualified handwritten ballots was part of an agreement Democratic Party officials hammered out with representatives from the Clinton and Obama campaigns.
To Colon and other party leaders, such ballots represent what they wanted in this election, an effort to include votes by anybody who could be confirmed as a registered Democrat in New Mexico.
"It was intent over form. That was the bottom line,'' Colon said. "If we could identify a ballot and determine who they were voting for, these candidates agreed to ensure that those votes would be counted.''
According to certified results released by the Democrats, 8,404 from the pool of more than 17,000 provisional ballots were qualified. Of those, 4,215 voters went for Clinton and 3,935 for Obama.
Those figures included 259 "unallocated'' provisional votes, described by Democrats as qualified ballots where tabulators were unable to determine the congressional district where a voter lives.
If that number represents the handwritten ballots, it wouldn't be enough to change the outcome of the race.
Colon said some provisionals that were disqualified — not necessarily handwritten ballots — were thrown out because they were cast by Republicans, independents or members of other parties.
Brace said some of the confusion may have come from having Democrats running the caucus, since the party isn't bound by state election laws.
"It was run by people who don't really know how to run elections,'' he said. "When party officials are planning it, this is the potential outcome.''
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