I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
A federal agency is ponying up around $600,000 this year to provide upkeep for New Mexico’s more than 1,900 voting tabulators and voting machines.
New Mexico won a federal grant from the U.S. Elections Assistance Commission to pay the maintenance bill after Bernalillo County contributed $33,000, Bernalillo County Clerk Maggie Toulouse Oliver told The Independent.
“Bernalillo county put up $33,000 for all the counties in New Mexico and the EAC was going to put up the rest of the money,” Toulouse Oliver said.
Paying for upkeep of New Mexico’s voting equipment sounds like a yawner of an issue, but it’s become a hot-button issue for state and local elections officials in recent years.
That’s because of the potential cost of maintaining the 1,900 voting tabulators and other pieces of equipment a Nebraska-based company sold to New Mexico in 2006.
After selling the equipment for roughly $18 million in 2006, the company, ES&S, turned around in 2007 and charged counties more than $1 million to maintain the machines. The state and counties have negotiated with ES&S ever since in an attempt to reduce the bill.
At one point ES&S wanted Bernalillo County, the state’s largest county, to fork over $287,000 a year for maintenance. The bill for Doña Ana County — home to Las Cruces, the state’s second largest county — was around $79,000 a year, slightly higher than Santa Fe County’s price of $69,000.
The federal grant required a 5 percent contribution from New Mexico to unlock the more than $600,000, which came in the form of Bernalillo County’s $33,000, Toulouse Oliver said.
“It’s not a permanent solution,” she added.
But the federal money comes just in time as New Mexico heads into the 2010 election cycle, with the June primary election followed by the November general election.
The New Mexico Secretary of State’s office could not be reached for comment Friday afternoon.
