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.
Republican Secretary of State Dianna Duran gave the State Department of Public Safety 64,000 names that she deems “possible voter fraud.” That would be more than 10 percent of the 607,700 people who voted in the 2010 elections, the Santa Fe New Mexican reports.
More from Steve Terell:
Duran brought up the possible illegal voters while testifying in favor of a bill that would have required voters to show photo identification at the polls before voting. She said that in cross-checking voter registrations with a state Motor Vehicle Division database, her office had found 117 foreign nationals who had registered to vote. All of these, she said, had listed Social Security numbers on voter-registration forms that didn’t match up with their names. At least 37 of those actually voted in state elections, Duran said at the time.
Duran’s office admits that some of the 64,000 cases could turn out to be the result of clerical errors rather than criminal wrongdoing.
“It goes without saying, as is the case with virtually any set of data files, that there may be data-entry errors,” Bureau of Elections Director Bobbi Shearer said. “Only a thorough review, file by file, will tell.
“There is no way to know what the result will be till the data are reviewed step by step,” she added.
She declined to elaborate on the kind of cases sent to the Department of Public Safety. “It’s better to wait for the results than to ‘characterize’ any aspect of the task without knowing what the result will be,” she said.
It seems extremely likely that the overwhelming majority of these cases are indeed clerical errors. There are any number of ways voter registration records wouldn’t match state or federal records — illegible handwriting on voter registration cards, names that don’t match exactly (e.g. John or Jack, John T. Smith or John Thomas Smith), moving, a dead person having your name, differently written-out addresses, inevitable errors by poll workers, and so on. That’s not fraud.
Unlike in some states, felons in New Mexico who have completed their sentences can vote again. If foreign nationals were to vote, they would be deported and risk criminal prosecution — who would want to risk that for a marginal benefit to a candidate? Same for your average person. The payoff is minimal to your candidate, and punishment would be five to 10 years in prison and a fine up up to $10,000. Seems like a dumb thing to risk.
