Thu Jun 20 2013
Departments
Election Issues

What are they hiding in New Mexico?
by Warren Stewart, National Ballot Integrity Project
January 18, 2005

In the shadow of overwhelming irregularities in the Ohio’s election, New Mexico has played out it’s own post-election drama almost unnoticed by anyone outside the state. Even before the November 2, New Mexico had been in the news for reports of malfunctioning voting machines and other problems. Hundreds of incidents were reported on Election Day. The state got some national attention for once again leading the nation in undervote rate. All this coupled with a small margin of victory in the presidential race (just 3/4 of 1%) led to concern about the accuracy of the results.

Soon after the November 23 certification of New Mexico’s election results, the Green and Libertarian presidential candidates requested a recount and deposited the $108, 000 required by the New Mexico State Code. By the middle of December over a thousand volunteers had been organized to act as observers and coordinators for the recount. On December 15, the State Canvassing Board granted the request for a recount, but also demanded that the recount advocates would be required to come up with $1.4 million by 10 a.m. the next day in order to proceed. That demand was contrary to New Mexico law as there is no legal requirement that candidates pay the full cost of a recount in advance, nor any way to accurately estimate the cost of a recount before it is completed. Recount proponents went to court to have the $1.4 million charge dropped. On December 17, a New Mexico court reaffirmed the decision of the Canvassing Board and on December 23 the New Mexico Supreme Court upheld the $1.4 Million demand.

Around this time the Greens and Libertarians offered a compromise in which they would pay in advance for a recount of 10% of the state's precincts, and then seek a full recount only if the results warranted it. Governor Bill Richardson repeatedly rejected this offer. In spite of this, Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron suggested last week that because recount advocates had never presented her with a list of 10% of the precincts she was sending a letter to county clerks giving them permission to clear the memory logs of the voting machines (http://www.abqjournal.com/elex/apmachines01-13-05.htm). But she and the Governor had never accepted the compromise and never requested the list of precincts. Saturday’s court decision to deny a temporary restraining order to protect the machine memory and the process of erasing that began in several counties immediately results in a forced electoral amnesia that precludes any chance of verifying the election data. In the case of the paperless voting machines used in 82% of the state on Election Day, the only record that remains is the certified canvass report.

But that canvass report is riddled with anomalies. In comparing the number of ballots cast (that is, the number of voters who signed the poll books or submitted an absentee or provisional ballot) with the total number of presidential votes in any precinct, there turn out to be three possibilities. There can me more ballots cast than total votes for president (these are called undervotes), the same number of votes counted as ballots cast (I’ll call those zero-undervotes), and alarmingly there is also the situation where the number of presidential votes exceeds the number of ballots cast (these are called ‘phantom votes’). Since these are all mutually exclusive results, it is extraordinary to find excessively high rates of all of three in the same state for the same contest, but that’s what happened in New Mexico according to the canvass report.

In 2004 New Mexico once again led the nation in undervote rate. According to the canvass report, 1 in every 37 ballot casts, 21,084 voters, did not cast a vote for any presidential candidate. On Election Day the rate was nearly 1 in 20 voters with 92 precincts reporting undervote rates over 10%. In spite of this, the New Mexico Secretary of State seems surprisingly unconcerned, commenting recently that she “doesn't spend a lot of time on undervote issues," going on to speculate that "some voters are just not concerned with the presidential race." (http://www.knoxstudio.com/shns/story.cfm?pk=MISCOUNT-FINAL-12-22-04&cat=AN)

Had she spent more time on undervote issues, she may have noticed that 77% ballots with presidential undervotes statewide were cast on push button voting machines – the ones without a paper trail, the ones that are now being erased. Further, in precincts that used optical scan machines for Early Voting and push button electronic machines on Election Day, the undervote rate on Election Day was almost six times higher. Somehow the unconcerned voters managed to live predominately in counties using electronic voting machines and chose to express their lack of concern on those machines.

But something must have gotten them to the polls. The large number of zero undervote situations in the state provides a way of determining whether to blame undervotes on the voters or the machines. In spite of New Mexico’s distinction of leading the nation in undervote rate, over half of the precincts in the state reported zero presidential undervotes at some stage of voting, with over half of the absentee precincts reporting zero undervotes.

By examining the undervote rate in down ticket contests on ballots that all contain presidential votes, it is possible to determine a normal undervote rate for each of the other statewide races, bond questions and amendments. If high presidential undervote rates indicate voters' lack of interest in the presidential contest as the Secretary of State maintains, one would expect the undervote rates in down-ticket contests to remain roughly the same regardless of the presidential undervote rate, but they do not.

A comparison of the normal rates to down-ticket rates in situations where there were presidential undervotes showed that the down-ticket rates increase by an amount that parallels the presidential undervote rate. The presidential undervote went from zero to 3.5%, the congressional undervote rate went from 1.8% to 5.3%, the justice's races went from 4.9% to 8.2%, the bonds and amendments from 14% to 17 1/2% - they all increased by the same amount that the presidential undervotes increased. This analysis strongly suggests that most of the 21,084 undervotes in the presidential election do not reflect unconcerned voters, but rather it suggests that the voting machines may have lost entire ballots.

You can blame the voters or you can blame the machines. Outgoing Director of the Bureau of Elections Denise Lamb, among other explanations she has offered, has blamed undervotes on the phenomenon of ‘fled’ voters – voters who enter the voting booth and then decide not to vote. At the same time there is compelling evidence that many machines may have failed to count votes. The only way to resolve the question of whether those votes were counted or not is through a meaningful recount in which the memory logs of the machines is examined. The Secretary of State has now eliminated the possibility of resolving that question by ordering the clearing of the machines.

And then there is the troubling phenomenon of phantom votes – cases in which the number of votes exceeds the number of ballots cast. The canvass report reveals 2,087 presidential phantom votes and over 13,000 in other contests on the ballot. The Secretary of State has maintained that phantom votes are not possible. While logically I would have to agree with her, the fact remains that the certified results report that in Early Voting in one Bernalillo County precinct, 178 ballots cast resulted in 319 presidential votes and that voters in one precinct in Dona Ana County apparently cast an average of 2 1/4 absentee ballots. In fact, presidential phantom votes were reported in 15 of the 33 counties and they appear down ticket as well. In one precinct in San Juan County 318 voters somehow managed to register 2,161 votes, 2,079 of them to incumbent county clerk Fran Hanhardt and just 82 for her opponent Glojean Todacheene. San Juan County was the first to announce its intention to clear the memory on their voting machines, initially disregarding the legal requirement of notifying all of the political parties involved in the election.

Since November 2, many have dismissed the situation in New Mexico as irrelevant. With only five electoral votes it couldn’t have effected the election or, as I’ve heard too often, “It wouldn’t have changed the outcome, so who cares?” Well it’s true that 140 votes would not have effected the outcome and the San Juan county clerk won the election that she was in charge of running by a comfortable margin, but it makes you wonder about the rest of the precincts. In fact, the canvass report cannot be considered an accurate record of the will of the people of New Mexico as expressed on November 2. Why have Governor Richardson, Secretary of State Vigil-Giron, and Chief Justice Maes opposed a recount?

--
Warren Stewart is a researcher and advocate for National Ballot Integrity Project. The data from the certified canvass report is available in an Excel file at http://www.votersunite.org/info/newmexicophantomvotes.asp. The research he has done with Ellen Theisen of VotersUnite.org is detailed in The Summary Report on the New Mexico Election Data available at the same site. The official canvass report of the 2004 New Mexico General election can be downloaded from the Secretary of State’s site.




Recent Election Issues Articles

An open letter to the Election Assistance Commission
  December 25, 2005
  John Gideon, Executive Director of VotersUnite.Org and Information Manager for VoteTrustUSA.Org

Diebold hack proven in county test!
  December 17, 2005
  Glenn Yeagley

Diebold Inc. in a tailspin after resignation of CEO and filing of a class action fraud lawsuit
  December 17, 2005
  VelvetRevolution.us

Orr thinks machines make voting simpler, more secure
  December 17, 2005
  Mario Bartoletti

Diebold "hack test" - Sec. State / Black Box Lawyer square off
  December 10, 2005
  Black Box Voting

With new legislation, Ohio Republicans plan holiday burial for American Democracy
  December 6, 2005
  Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman

Important daily voting news
  December 4, 2005
  John Gideon

Poll shock
  November 24, 2005
  Robert C. Koehler, Tribune Media Services

Ohio's Diebold Debacle: New machines call election results into question
  November 24, 2005
  Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman

Diebold attempts to evade election transparency laws
  November 20, 2005
  Matt Zimmerman

Supreme Court stabs another GOP knife into US democracy by upholding ex-felon vote ban
  November 16, 2005
  Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman

Has American Democracy died an electronic death in Ohio 2005's referenda defeats?
  November 11, 2005
  Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman

What John Kerry definitely said about 2004’s stolen election and why it's killing American democracy
  November 10, 2005
  Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman

Scrap the "secret" ballot - return to open voting
  November 5, 2005
  Lynn Landes 

Clarification of NEDA's withdrawal of Ohio exit poll paper
  November 5, 2005
  Kathy Dopp

Clarification of NEDA's withdrawal of Ohio exit poll paper
  November 3, 2005
  Kathy Dopp, National Election Data Archive

Watergate-style money laundering indictments stoke Ohio's stolen election fires
  October 28, 2005
  Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman

Powerful Government Accountability Office report confirms key 2004 stolen election findings
  October 26, 2005
  Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman

Did you erase your own vote?
  October 25, 2005
  Warren Stewart, Director of Legislative Issues and Policy, www.VoteTrustUSA.org

Why can't the left face the Stolen Elections of 2004 & 2008?
  October 18, 2005
  Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman

Carter/Baker Report can't face how the GOP stole America's 2004 election & is rigging 2008
  September 20, 2005
  Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back
  September 20, 2005
  Warren Stewart, Director of Legislative Issues and Policy, VoteTrustUSA

FEMA Chief Brown Paid Millions in False Claims to Help Bush Win Fla. Votes
  September 19, 2005
  Jason Leopold

Ohio recount lawsuit set for trial; election workers indicted
  September 4, 2005
  Blair Bobier

Ohio Governor's ethics violations expose money trail to stolen 2004 election
  August 30, 2005
  Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman

Diebold's failure in California
  August 7, 2005
  John Gideon, Information Manager, www.VotersUnite.Org and www.VoteTrustUSA.Org

Did the GOP steal another Ohio Election?
  August 5, 2005
  Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman

Conyers-Kaptur seek special counsel for Noe probe
  August 4, 2005
  John Conyers, Jr. and Marcy Kaptur

Dramatic new charges deepen link between Ohio's "Coingate," Voinovich mob connections, and the theft of the 2004 election
  July 29, 2005
  Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman

None dare call it stolen - Ohio, the election, and America's servile press
  July 24, 2005
  Mark Crispin Miller, summarized by Mary Anne Saucier, Columbus, Ohio

Civic Engagement and the Restoration of Community from a voter activist’s view
  July 19, 2005
  Terri Zins

My report from Hocking County, July 5, 2005: An update on Sherole Eaton's unfolding Story
  July 7, 2005
  Victoria Parks, Ohio Backbone Campaign

Handbook for Ohio Voter Activists, Version 2.0
  July 7, 2005
  Various activists

Direct testimony: Presented to Election Assessment Hearing
  July 4, 2005
  Richard Hayes Phillips, Ph.D.

Log Cabin Republicans in Ohio
  July 4, 2005
  Richard Hayes Phillips, Ph.D.

With a limp election theft report, Dems prove why they're unworthy
  June 28, 2005
  Harvey Wasserman and Bob Fitrakis

Voting problems and uncounted votes in Lucas County, Ohio
  June 28, 2005
  Justine Smith

The DNC 2004 Election Report: An indictment of incompetence
  June 25, 2005
  Steven Rosenfeld and Bob Fitrakis

Corporate control of the election process
  June 22, 2005
  John Gideon

Introduction: Did George W. Bush steal America's 2004 election?
  June 16, 2005
  Bob Fitrakis, Steve Rosenfeld and Harvey Wasserman

Voter Confidence Committee Calls For Rejection of CA Special Election
  June 16, 2005
   Dave Berman

Activists from 25 states lobby for paper ballots on June 9 and 10
  June 10, 2005
  VoteTrustUSA.org

Fear of riffraff
  June 10, 2005
  Robert C. Koehler, Tribune Media Services

Electoral Politics and the War: Lessons from 2004 and What the Anti-War Movement Should do in 2006
  June 8, 2005
  Kevin Zeese

Optical scan machines hacked in Florida
  June 2, 2005
  Black Box Voting

Does ES&S really want to sell the Automark machines?
  May 28, 2005
  John Gideon

Attack on election board whistleblower and leaked Blackwell threats re-fire Ohio's election theft scandal
  May 23, 2005
  Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman

Franklin County, Ohio Election Procedures – April and May 2005
  May 6, 2005
  Paddy Shaffer

Carter Gets It – But Will His Electoral Commission?
  April 24, 2005
  Kevin Zeese and Linda Schade

Voter Perceptions and Political Deceptions: Federal, Ohio and Knox
  April 24, 2005
  Mike Swinford

Electoral reform groups call for James Baker's resignation from electoral reform commission
  April 17, 2005
  Ilene Proctor

National Conference on Election Reform Opens with Civil Rights Panel
  April 13, 2005
  Abigail Thorton

View from Another Planet
  April 13, 2005
  Josh Mitteldorf

Democrats!  Paper “Trails” Aren’t Good Enough.  Count The Damn Ballots!
  April 12, 2005
  Lynn Landes 

Democrats, Paper ‘Trails’ Aren’t Good Enough; Count The Damn Ballots!
  April 1, 2005
  Lynn Landes, Online Journal Contributing Writer

Scientific Analysis Suggests Presidential Vote Counts May Have Been Altered
  March 30, 2005
  US Vote Counts

As Blackwell Says, Ohio’s in 2004 was a National Model
  March 24, 2005
  Steve Rosenfeld, Bob Fitrakis, and Harvey Wasserman

Understanding the difference between paper ballots and paper audit trails
  March 20, 2005
   Gary Beckwith

Save Our Democracy
  March 16, 2005
  John Irwin

Republicans maneuvering to get Voting Rights Act killed
  March 10, 2005
  Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr.

Legal filing highlights Blackwell's hypocrisy in Ohio recount case
  March 7, 2005
  Blair Bobier

Selma 40 Years Later
  March 6, 2005
  Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr.

Exit Poll Madness - Analyst Steve Freeman & Company Offer False Choice
  March 4, 2005
  Lynn Landes

Libertarians To Testify in Ohio House: Modernize Ohio's Election Laws
  March 3, 2005
  Robert Butler

The New Voting Rights Movement Begins Here Today
  March 2, 2005
  Steven Rosenfeld

Voting in America
  February 28, 2005
  Bob Babson

The Mighty Texas Strike Force
  February 28, 2005
  Nick Mottern - Documentary News Service

Blackwell presidential election sanctions briefs
  February 22, 2005
  Various individuals

Representative Conyers and others file amicus brief in Ohio Supreme Court
  February 17, 2005
  Dena Graziano

Congresswoman Tubbs Jones Outraged at Blackwell's Failure to Appear During House Administration Hearing
  February 12, 2005
  Office of Rep. Tubbs Jones

Ohio Attorney-General's attack on election protection attorneys draws mountain of documentation on state's stolen election, including new study on exit polls
  February 3, 2005
  Steve Rosenfeld and Harvey Wasserman

Prominent Statisticians Refute 'Explanation' of 2004 U.S. Exit Poll Discrepancies in New Edison/Mitofsky Report and Urge Investigation of U.S. Presidential Election Results
  January 31, 2005
  Bruce O'Dell

The last man to concede...
  January 29, 2005
  Sheila Samples

Report on Washington DC, January 6, 2005
  January 25, 2005
  Avram Friedman

Arkansas in 2004: Did Bush Really Win?
  January 24, 2005
  Max Standridge

New links
  January 23, 2005
  Free Press staff

Voting Problems and Uncounted Votes in Lucas County, Ohio
  January 23, 2005
  Justine Smith

Plan B:  Parallel Elections & Signed Ballots
  January 20, 2005
  Lynn Landes

Open Letter to Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro from Representative John Conyers, Jr.
  January 20, 2005
  Representative John Conyers, Jr.

Open Letter to Warren Mitofsky and Larry Rosin from Representative John Conyers, Jr.
  January 20, 2005
  Representative John Conyers, Jr.

Ohio's GOP Attorney General launches revenge attack on Election Protection legal team
  January 19, 2005
  Steve Rosenfeld and Harvey Wasserman

What are they hiding in New Mexico?
  January 18, 2005
  Warren Stewart, National Ballot Integrity Project

In the Shadow of Dr. King, counting the vote remains a civil rights issue
  January 17, 2005
  Bob Fitrakis, Steve Rosenfeld and Harvey Wasserman

Did the “Liberal Media” Get the 2004 Election All Wrong?
  January 16, 2005
  Gene C. Gerard

'COUNT EVERY VOTE.  EVERY VOTE COUNTS'
  January 16, 2005
  Mary Anne Saucier

Moss v. Bush moves on and movement continues
  January 13, 2005
  Bob Fitrakis, Steve Rosenfeld and Harvey Wasserman

Rally Continues Drive for Democracy
  January 9, 2005
   Mark Huntress

Estimated vote count in Ohio
  January 8, 2005
  Richard Hayes Phillips, Ph.D.

January 6 Washington, D.C. rally report
  January 8, 2005
  Nick Mottern

Together, we moved three mountains
  January 8, 2005
  Bob Fitrakis, Steve Rosenfeld and Harvey Wasserman

What the election challenge means
  January 8, 2005
  David Swanson, ILCA

Progressive Democrats lead historic voting rights protest as Congress ratifies flawed 2004 Electoral College tally
  January 7, 2005
  Bob Fitrakis, Steve Rosenfeld and Harvey Wasserman

Arnebeck letter to Congress re Presidential Electoral Challenge
  January 6, 2005
  Clifford O. Arnebeck, Jr.

Senator Barbara Boxer, D-CA and Representative Stephanie Tubbs Jones, D-OH contested the election
  January 6, 2005
  Free Press staff

The "Crime of November 2":  The human side of how Bush stole Ohio, and why Congress must investigate rather than ratify the Electoral College (Part Two of Two)
  January 5, 2005
  Bob Fitrakis, Steve Rosenfeld and Harvey Wasserman

Status Report of the House Judiciary Committee Democratic Staff
  January 5, 2005
  U.S. Rep. John Conyers and staff

Seven key reasons why the vote must be challenged at the electoral college
  January 3, 2005
  Rev. Jesse Jackson, Rainbow/PUSH Coalition

Ten preliminary reasons why the Bush vote does not compute, and why Congress must investigate rather than certify the Electoral College (Part One of Two)
  January 3, 2005
  Bob Fitrakis, Steve Rosenfeld and Harvey Wasserman

Verified election contest petitions and documents in Ohio Supreme Court
  January 2, 2005
  The undersigned

Distribution of voting machines by county in Ohio
  January 1, 2005
  Andy Shifflette

Did We Bounce An Election?
  January 1, 2005
  Warren Stewart, votersunite.org

Presidential election congressional hearing transcript
  January 1, 2005
  Congresspeople Waters, Tubbs-Jones and Conyers and others




Read Election Issues Articles by Year:
2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000



FREE PRESS EMAIL UPDATE


Donate to the Free Press Election Protection Fund to help us investigate and monitor election fraud in this year's election.


Donate to The Free Press The Free Press Store

FOLLOW US ON
twitter
facebook


SEARCH THE FREEPRESS




1021 E. Broad St. Columbus, OH 43205 | 614.253.2571 | truth@freepress.org
All content © 1970-2012 The Columbus Free Press
Disclaimer