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.
ACORN, the organization that has become a favorite whipping boy of Republicans from Sen. John McCain to state Rep. Justine Fox-Young, today launched an attack against McCain and voter intimidation, releasing a poignant 30-second ad. Entitled “Not This Time,” it ties McCain to the history of voter intimidation of blacks. “Senator McCain needs to instruct his operatives and supporters to cease and desist,” ACORN Executive Director Steve Kest said at a news conference this morning, at which the ad was unveiled. “Nothing is more important to the fabric of our democracy than protecting the rights of American voters. Senator McCain should instead join us in trying to make it easier for voters to exercise their rights, by calling for measures such as extending early voting hours, to facilitate the greatest possible participation in this historic election.” New Mexican Francisco Martinez also spoke at the news conference. Martinez is the 19-year-old CNM student who was among the voters whose registrations state Republicans have claimed were fraudulent. To recap, Fox-Young said on Oct. 16:
“This is a bombshell. We now have undeniable proof that a significant number of fraudulent votes were cast in Democrat primary races for the New Mexico state legislature as a result of ACORN’s voter registration fraud. …No longer can ACORN argue that their phony voter registration forms don’t translate into fraudulent votes. They do and today we can prove it.”
As NMI reported Monday, Martinez claims there was nothing wrong with his registration:
“All he [an ACORN representative] did was call my number and he reached me,” Martinez said. ”I went to the county clerk and got a copy of my registration and everything was right, my home address, my social, my name, everything was correct. There was nothing funny or wrong with it at all,” he said.
Martinez and the ACLU are now suing Fox-Young, and the private investigator who said he was working for Republican attorney Pat Rogers, for release of violation of privacy and voter intimidation. In a separate lawsuit, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund is suing Rogers and Romero on behalf of two voters who were visited by the private investigator, seeking “to enjoin Defendant individuals from threatening and intimidating minority race voters.”
ACORN, which helped ACLU and MALDEF connect with voters for the lawsuits, is framing the lawsuits as part of its strategy to fight back against unwarranted claims of fraud.
In a statement released today, Republican National Committee’s chief counsel, Sean Cairncross, had this to say:
“Acorn’s most recent charges of voter suppression seem to be yet another attempt by this questionable organization to waste valuable taxpayer money and cloud their own record of voter registration fraud,” Mr. Cairncross said. “Just as a losing Kerry campaign election manual in 2004 urged activists to lodge a ‘pre-emptive strike’ claiming voter intimidation regardless of validity, Acorn is taking a page straight from the Democrats’ playbook.”
