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 delay in reporting Rio Arriba County election results Tuesday night was due to a connection failure between the County’s automated election system and the Secretary of State’s office, according to County Clerk Moises Morales.
Deputy County Clerk Linda Padilla offered an additional explanation. Tallies were not received until after 2 a.m. Wednesday because absentee ballot boxes had to be driven to Tierra Amarilla from far-flung corners of the large northern New Mexico county for counting, Padilla and others said.
Rio Arriba wasn’t alone in delayed returns to the Secretary of State’s office, and none of Tuesday’s races were particularly close in Rio Arriba County, Secretary of State’s office records confirm.
Colfax and Mora counties also finished tallies early Wednesday, according to the Secretary of State’s office.
But Rio Arriba County has a history of questionable delays in turning in ballots and reporting election results, making any election night glitches a sensitive issue.
The County had similar election reporting problems with computer connectivity in 2006.
In 2008, results from the state Democratic Party’s presidential caucus were delayed when three ballot boxes were kept overnight by County election officials. The boxes had been kept at the homes of three polling-place managers, State Sen. Richard Martinez told Kate Nash at the Santa Fe New Mexican. But Martinez offered no explanation for why the results had not been reported to the state party on election night.
In 1998, Rio Arriba County election officials were convicted of vote fraud, a 12-year old case cited in Republican candidate for governor Susana Martinez‘s recent stump speeches.
