N.M. Dems continue counting, recheck results
Related
Advertisement
2/14/2008 - 2/14/08
ALBUQUERQUE — State Democratic Party officials said they were rechecking canvassed results from the Feb. 5 presidential caucus on Wednesday, a day after they had released them on the party's Web site.The party had announced what they termed the "final totals" of their count of absentee and regular ballots Tuesday and posted a news release and link to them on their Web site, but removed those items later that evening.
"If I'm uncomfortable that what I have up there is not a hundred percent accurate, I'll pull it down until I can get to that point," state Democratic Party Chairman Brian Colón said.
On Wednesday, the party started counting more than 8,000 provisional ballots cast in the caucus that will determine whether Hillary Rodham Clinton or Barack Obama claims victory in New Mexico.
Clinton leads by 1,121 votes. She had 68,659 votes compared with 67,538 for Obama, according to Associated Press figures based on county and absentee totals provided by the party Tuesday.
The Web site's link had been visible for about five hours Tuesday evening with what the party had said were the canvassed results before it was removed later that night. The total votes statewide did not match the party's county-by-county totals.
Democratic officials said the Web site would be updated Wednesday with vote totals that reflect the correct number of canvassed regular and absentee ballots.
Colón said the caucus results would not be final until certified by the canvass board.
"Once I certify those canvass results along with my canvass board, which is comprised of four members including me, then the numbers are final," he said. "Until then, everything is preliminary canvass results."
Kim Brace, president of Washington, D.C.-based Election Data Services, who has focused on election administration issues for more than 30 years, questioned the ability of the state Democratic Party to come up with legitimate results.
"The party itself has got egg on its face in trying to lay out a process in terms that people's voices can be heard," he said. "I don't know if you could trust whatever the election results are that they're coming up with."
Part of the problem, Brace said, is that the state Democratic Party is running the election, but is not bound by state electoral laws.
"It's an attempt to make it look like an election, call it a caucus, but not follow any of the rules that you have for an election," he said. "That's not the way normal elections are run."
The party has until Feb. 15 to finish the count, and Colón was confident with the pace of the process.
"I'm very optimistic that we will actually beat the deadline of February 15th," he said.
About a dozen party and campaign officials were engrossed in counting the provisional ballots at an Albuquerque accounting firm Wednesday. More than 9,000 provisional ballots cast were unable to be qualified, Colón said.
The provisional ballots — their images scanned into a computer system — were projected onto a wall in the darkened room for those involved in the count to see. They include representatives from the Clinton and Obama campaigns, auditors, a caucus judge and employees of TrueBallot, the company the Democrats hired to provide election software.
The provisionals are identified and bundled in batches so that the actual ballot can be reviewed, if necessary, said Nick Koumoutseas of TrueBallot.
The computer software highlights the voter's choice in green or, if the voter marks more than one candidate, it highlights the dual or triple answers in red.
However, the observers can see the ballot image on the screen and override the computer's choice should they discern a different voter intent, he said.
Koumoutseas showed several instances of overvoting, in which voters had marked more than one name per ballot. Such ballots will not be counted. In one case, a voter had marked three choices, including Clinton, and then written "Hillary Clinton" in sprawling letters in the write-in space.
A total of 157,354 ballots — absentee, regular or provisional — were cast in New Mexico on Super Tuesday. That's a 54 percent increase from the party's first presidential caucus four years ago.
The heavy turnout prompted long lines and organizers ran out of ballots at many polling sites.
Gov. Bill Richardson has said he was disappointed that party officials weren't better prepared but felt Colón did a "good job" rectifying the situation.
After the counting is completed, Richardson plans to convene a meeting of Democrats, county officials and party leaders to discuss ways to improve the process for future elections.
Several party chairs from around the state have charged that those running the caucus failed to take into account their input about where ballots should be placed and did not hold a statewide meeting of the county chairs to troubleshoot anticipated issues ahead of time.
