Photo by James McCauley

Asked about his Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms, Joseph Callan paused, his gaze momentarily distant.

“I see dead people,” he said, scoffing quietly.

“In crowds, I’ll think, ‘that’s Howzer!’ or somebody else,” the former U.S. Marine Corps sergeant explained. “I know they’re dead. I saw them dead. But I feel compelled to confirm it’s not them, to see them from another angle. So I’m ducking through a crowd to get another look at them and it’s always just some random (person).”

Callan, now 32, joined the Marines when he was 18 years old, he told The Independent.

Surrounded by college students at an Albuquerque coffee shop near UNM, the great-grandson of a Navajo code talker and regional organizer for Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) ticked off the other manifestations of his three combat tours in Iraq.

“Self-medication, alcohol mostly,” he said. “Short temper — angry all the time. And not caring. Just not caring. This detachment. That’s why school didn’t work out for me, I think. I just didn’t care. …And I’m reckless. I ride my motorcycle faster than I should.”

“I never stop thinking about Iraq,” Callen said. “It’s a constant presence. It’s always there.”

Throughout the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, troops with combat-related traumatic brain injuries, called TBIs, or PTSD symptoms have routinely faced multiple deployments, Callan said.

“After the initial invasion, just about everybody I knew exhibited signs of PTSD – and we were all redeployed,” he recalled. “The Army and Marine Corps just needed warm bodies to stuff into slots. I’ve seen guys deploy with arms in casts. I saw (a Marine) deploy on crutches.”

Now, as a field organizer for IVAW, Callan wants to see an end to the practice of deploying troops with combat trauma. The organization’s “Operation Recovery” is a push to force the Pentagon to obey its own directive against deploying troops with PTSD, Callan said.

“These troops have a right to heal,” he said. “It’s inhumane and an awful practice to take somebody who is damaged and put them back in the environment that damaged them. They’re human beings. They break like regular humans.”

Some Marines who sought help were told they had to choose between “remaining deployable” and a “less than honorable discharge,” Callan said.

Callan is taking his message on the road, speaking throughout Washington, Oregon and California this and next week.

Multiple combat tours for brain-injured vets widespread, Army doc says

Multiple deployments for brain-injured and traumatized troops have been a common problem throughout the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to Remington Nevin, a U.S. Army physician and epidemiologist.

Nevin spoke with The Independent in a series of interviews early this year — before being ordered to stop speaking with the news media. Nevin has studied deployment rates for soldiers with mental health diagnoses.

Military medical experts warned the Pentagon the planned 2007 “surge” in Iraq would re-expose so many already-traumatized active duty troops to new brain injuries and trauma that it would likely “break the Army,” Nevin said.

“Those soldiers are broken now,” Nevin said. “Repeated brain injuries or repeated exposure to traumatic events for a soldier with PTSD makes those problems much harder to treat. … The point of military public health is to avoid harm. For many of these guys, it’s too late now.”

Many military doctors strongly suspect repeated combat trauma is behind record-high suicide rates among soldiers, Nevin and an Army Medicine source, who asked not to be identified, both told The Independent early this year.

Officially, the Army denies that. An internal study confirming that combat unit deployments were a significant risk factor for suicide was declared a “political hot potato” by a high-ranking official and sent back for re-analysis. After unspecified statistical adjustments, the correlation between suicide and combat duty disappeared, according to an April 2010 Army suicide report.

A public Army report blames risky behavior and substance abuse for the soldier suicide epidemic — but those are signs of PTSD, Callan was quick to point out.

The Pentagon knew of the redeployment problem as early as 2004, records show, and officials fretted that brain injuries from roadside bombs would become the “Gulf War Syndrome” of the Iraq war. It took more than three years to add blast trauma questions to soldiers’ post-deployment health assessments.

At least 74,000 troops’ post-deployment health assessments have gone missing, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

‘We shot anything that moved’

During Callan’s second deployment to Iraq, in 2004, his vehicles were hit by roadside bombs three times, and he was within the “impact area” of another four.

“My platoon was hit 25 times,” he said. “That was just in the second deployment. Platoons like mine were called ‘suicide squads’ because we drove un-up-armored LAVs. … We literally shot anything that moved.”

Callan saw Iraqi civilians accidentally killed by U.S. forces, he acknowledged.

“If you smoke a guy kicking in your back door at night, you’re not going to have PTSD,” Callan told The Independent. “But if you shoot somebody and it turns out to be a guy checking your water meter, you’re probably going to be fucked up.”

After his second tour, Callan’s PTSD symptoms were worse – but he still was not diagnosed with PTSD, which would have disqualified him for another combat tour.

Instead, a military doctor diagnosed him with “chronic stress,” Callan told The Independent. Callan was told to take Benadryl to help with insomnia, but frequently turned to alcohol instead.

Callan was finally diagnosed with PTSD by the Veterans Administration (VA), only after he had left the Marine Corps.

Once diagnosed, Callan found it a challenge to get help.

He called the state veterans hotline for help, but nobody answered or called him back, he said. The VA in Albuquerque offered medication and counseling classes, but those classes are only offered during business hours, he said — making it difficult to keep a regular job. (VA officials could not be reached for comment Thursday because VA offices were closed for Veterans’ Day.)

PTSD is not just a ‘military problem’

Between 350,000 and 900,000 troops who have served in Iraq or Afghanistan have PTSD, according to IVAW. And an estimated 12 percent of deployed troops are taking prescription psychiatric medications.

“It’s dangerous for other soldiers,” Callan said. “It’s not safe for troops who depend on those kids. … They’re not 100 percent alert. What are you supposed to do?”

Veterans are often marginalized and ignored, and many people don’t appreciate how war trauma diffuses throughout the communities to which they return.

“There are veterans everywhere,” Callan said. “The pain and the violence spreads throughout our communities, across the country. That’s what people don’t get. Even if it’s 20 years until they retire, eventually we all move out and return home to our communities. And we’re bringing home that violence and PTSD with us.”

Politicians wouldn’t meet with IVAW volunteers earlier this month to discuss deployments of traumatized vets, Callan said.

Instead, the group is attempting to build a movement within the military against the practice, he said.

That won’t be easy, Callan acknowledged.

“Peace activists are just below bin Laden in the military, in terms of who the enemy is,” Callan said. “It’s already illegal to redeploy PTSD-diagnosed troops but they do it all the (expletive) time. A directive already exists saying those troops cannot be deployed (again).”

For more information about Operation Recovery, visit the IVAW website.

Jerome Block Jr.

Public Regulation Commissioner Jerome Block, Jr. has struggled to pay more than $2,000 in debts over the past year, including one to a fellow commissioner and another to a youth group on whose board of directors he sits. Those debts are just the latest headache for Block, who said he has already paid $400,000 in legal fees to defend himself against criminal charges stemming his handling of public campaign funds.

Block received an advance for travel expenses, some of which were then paid by another commissioner

Before flying to Chicago for a work-related conference in November 2009, Block requested an advance from the state to cover his travel expenses. But once in Chicago, PRC Chair David King paid nearly $1,500 for Block’s room and meals with his own credit card. Later, Block requested further reimbursement from the state—based on the payment made by King. Block, who insisted the whole thing was a mixup, finished repaying the debt only last week.

Upon checking into the downtown Chicago Marriott for the Nov. 2009 annual meeting of the National Association of Regulatory Commissioners (NARUC), Block told King that he had misplaced his credit card and asked King to temporarily put Block’s room on King’s card. The plan was that Block would bring his card down to the desk after he unpacked and have it straightened out, both men told The Independent in separate interviews.

“He assured me he’d gotten it (the hotel room) put on his card,” King told The Independent. “Later we realized that hadn’t happened.”

As is standard practice for out-of-state travel by commissioners, Block had been advanced 80 percent of an anticipated $1,564 in trip expenses prior to the trip. That advance came in the form of a check for $1,259 that was issued Nov. 13—the day both men flew to Chicago from Albuquerque—but it was not picked up until Dec. 13, after Block’s return, records show.

After the trip was over, Block submitted a hotel invoice listing King’s credit card number in his own expense report, seeking reimbursement for the rest of the trip’s costs. (Receipts from the trip were missing from PRC expense reports inspected by The Independent, but at The Independent’s request, PRC officials obtained copies of the receipts from the state Department of Finance Administration.)

But that meant King couldn’t get reimbursed for his own expenses—because Block had already done so, a memo and e-mails show.

“The hotel expenses were a private matter between the commissioners,” PRC Chief Financial Officer Matthew Lovato told The Independent. “Block had the records. Any debt to another commissioner did not involve the state.”

Lovato said much the same thing to King in a July 2 e-mail, prompting an angry memo from King.

“When I first met with you regarding the payment I made for services for the PRC regarding Commissioner Block’s stay in Chicago, you and he assured me that it would be taken care of but now you state the new standard now (sic) to show proof of the stay with no proof of payment is acceptable,” King’s memo states.

Despite reimbursement from the state, Block took a year to repay King in full

Block said he attempted to pay King in January by leaving a check on King’s desk when he wasn’t in his office but King said he never found such a check.

At a PRC meeting soon after, minutes confirm, Block told fellow commissioners that the hotel in Chicago had “mixed up” the bills for his and King’s rooms, and that his effort to repay King had led to an “allegation” by an unnamed individual at the PRC that he had paid King to nominate him as PRC vice chairman.

Block would not elaborate—during the meeting or afterward—on what allegations had prompted that statement.

“I can’t believe he said something like that in a public meeting,” King told The Independent when asked about the Block’s comments. “I was pretty taken aback by that.”

Later, King’s executive assistant, Jim Williamson, set up a PayPal account and suggested Block repay his debt in installments. But despite Block’s assurances in June and July that the debt would be paid, no money was deposited in the PayPal account, Williamson said and PayPal account activity records show.

Block began repaying King in August, about nine months after the Chicago trip—and after The Independent began its investigation into Block’s travel expenses.

As of late October, Block had paid $1,200 of the $1,492 he owed; the last payment came during the first week of November, Williamson told The Independent Monday.

Boys and Girls Club awaits $1,000 in pledges

Adding to Block’s woes is the $1,000 he pledged to the Boys and Girls Club of Santa Fe during a March 2010 fundraiser, director Al Padilla confirmed. Block is on the organization’s board of directors.

Block also made a pledge for the 2009 fundraiser, but Block and Padilla could not recall how much he pledged at that time.

“Jerome grew up with us,” Padilla told The Independent. “He’s slow to pay but he always comes through in the end.”

Block said he has been unable to pay the promised donations because they were based on pledges of support he had secured from family and friends, he said – pledges his donors have yet to make good on.

“One person did give me a (donation) check but I misplaced that,” Block told The Independent.

Fellow commissioners say Block has done good work

Despite his financial woes, Block has done some good work at the PRC, two fellow commissioner said.

“Does he have the ability to do this job?” said King. “Yeah, he does. And his dad was a commissioner and knows this stuff very well.”

“Jerome has been excellent on some things…” fellow Commissioner Jason Marks said. “On the Blue Cross rate increase, he convinced the rest of us to ask the Superintendent to hold the (Aug. 2010) hearing.”

Looming criminal charges spell financial challenges

The debts were unwelcome headaches, following on the heels of criminal charges Block and his father, Jerome Block Sr., face after his 2008 campaign for the PRC, which was made with public financing.

Block reported paying $2,500 from his taxpayer-funded campaign fund to pay San Miguel County Clerk Paul Maez’s country-western band “Wyld Country” for a campaign concert that both men later admitted had never occurred. Maez returned $1,700 Block had paid the band, and was granted immunity from prosecution in the embezzlement case.

As county clerk, Maez oversaw the election in which Block emerged victoriously from a crowded six-candidate Democratic field.

Block and his father were indicted on 12 criminal counts last year, including embezzlement. But in February, District Judge Michael Vigil dismissed six charges against Block and his father, including election law violations and conspiracy, ruling that the charges represented double jeopardy because Secretary of State Mary Herrera had already fined Block $11,700 for misusing public campaign funds.

“I have paid $400,000 in legal fees,” Block told The Independent.

But he was quick to say legal fees had not left him unable to pay his other debts.

“My family has food on the table,” he said.

The Blocks still face embezzlement and evidence tampering charges, but their prosecution has been put on hold until the Supreme Court rules on the Attorney General’s appeal of Judge Vigil’s ruling, AG Gary King told The Independent.

N.M. Attorney General Gary King

Incumbent Gary King appears to have prevailed over Republican challenger and Clovis District Attorney Matt Chandler after a heated race for the New Mexico attorney general’s office.

The tally was 309,892 votes (53.5 percent) to 269,558 votes (46.5 percent), unofficial results from the Secretary of State’s office showed early Wednesday morning.

“I think it was a spirited race and a hard-won victory,” King told The Independent. “I think in the AG’s office, (voters) want me to be more aggressive on some of the things the AG’s office does. I’ll take that into account. Even though I think we’ve worked really hard to fight corruption in New Mexico, I think people want to see us be more aggressive.”

There was not an immediate response to calls for comment from the Chandler campaign as of 11 p.m. Tuesday.

Earlier in the evening, without conceding the election to King, Chandler campaign manager Henry Varela told The Independent that overcoming King’s family name had proven challenging.

“King has that name recognition, and that’s hard to overcome,” Varela acknowledged.

The race had become heated, with King, 55, and Chandler, 34, accusing one another of lying about Chandler’s murder prosecution record.

In one television ad, King’s campaign alleged Chandler had worked on only “half” the more than 30 murder convictions Chandler claims to have prosecuted. Chandler insisted he had “personally prosecuted” each case, with help from others in his office.

Part of the debate centered around Chandler’s use of the word “murder.” King argued that nine of Chandler’s claimed “murder convictions” were homicide cases that did not rise to the level of “murder,” which requires an intent to kill.

Chandler, in turn, had claimed that King had “turned a blind eye” to political corruption in New Mexico.

King, who holds a Ph.D. in organic chemistry as well as a law degree, was a state legislator for 12 years and directed the U.S. Energy Department’s Office of Worker and Community Transition from 1999 to 2000. He was elected Attorney General in 2006.

King initiated initiatives against human trafficking initiative and animal fighting during his first term as AG.

King loaned his campaign $202,000 late last month, part of $409,600 in late campaign contributions he reported a week before the election.

Patrick Lyons, Ben Hall and Theresa Becenti-Aguilar were all elected to the PRC, arguably the state’s most powerful regulatory agency.

Lyons convincingly defeated Democratic opponent Stephanie DuBois 20,806 votes (68.7 percent) to 9,458 (31.3 percent) according to unofficial Secretary of State returns as of 8:59 p.m. Tuesday.

Hall defeated populist consumer and ethics advocate Bill McCamley with the Secretary of State’s office reporting unofficial returns of 25,136 votes (47.8 percent) for McCamley and 27,348 votes (52.2 percent) for Hall at 8:59 p.m.

Becenti-Aguilar, the Commission’s only Native American and woman, defeated Montoya, a Shiprock Republican who aligned himself with the tea party, 54,934 (54.2 percent) to Montoya’s 46,329 (45.8 percent).

Like McCamley, Becenti-Aguilar had run on a consumer protection platform, pledging close scrutiny of utility and insurance rate hikes.

The five-member Commission has staggered terms. Only commissioners Jason Marks, D-Albuquerque, and Jerome Block Jr., D-Santa Fe, did not face re-election this year.

The PRC regulates the utilities and transportation industries, and oversees the state Corporations Commission, the state Pipeline Safety Bureau and the semi-autonomous Fire Marshal’s office and Division of Insurance.
The troubled Commission has been plagued by public controversies and scandals.

The Commission’s newcomers will have to hit the ground running in January. They will face daunting challenges, including ethics and structural reform efforts, and a call by some legislators to do away with their agency altogether. The Government Restructuring Task Force has drafted a constitutional amendment and companion legislation that would abolish the PRC, and reassign its various regulatory bureaus and divisions to other executive-branch agencies.

District 2: Patrick Lyons

Outgoing state land commissioner Patrick Lyons will replace outgoing PRC chairman David King as the representative for PRC District 2, which covers much of central and southeastern N.M.

Lyons ran on ethics reform at the Commission, including closer PRC scrutiny of contracting practices by its semi-autonomous Division of Insurance. However, at the helm of the State Land Office, he faced a protracted State Auditor’s Office investigation of land swaps he had approved.

Lyons ran a privately-funded campaign against the publicly-funded campaign of Tularosa businesswoman Stephanie DuBois, who previously ran unsuccessfully against King.

Lyons has called for the Commission to make staff hiring and firing decisions, he said.

“All the hiring, pay increases – that should go through the Commission,” Lyons said. “Every position posted should come before the Commission for a vote. The division directors could narrow it down to five people and the commissioners would interview them and make a decision. If you let the supervisors pick, you have too many people doing all the hiring.”

DuBois was clearly disappointed and did not hesitate to condemn Lyons as “a crook,” Friday night.

“I think we’re going to see everything, every rate raised arbitrarily now,” DuBois told The Independent. “Republicans don’t care about consumers. Consumers are absolutely the losers in this election. They really missed an opportunity to have a strong advocate on the PRC. If they wanted a crook, I think they got one.”

District 4: Theresa Becenti-Aguilar

Theresa Becenti-Aguilar defeated tea party Republican Gary Montoya in the race for the PRC’s District 4 seat, to represent north-central and northwestern N.M., including the N.M. portion of the Navajo Nation.

Montoya had run on the most industry-friendly platform of any of the three PRC races, repeatedly questioning overzealous PRC “micromanaging” of the state’s utility monopolies and the Division of Insurance.

Becenti-Aguilar, a Navajo, is the Commission’s only woman and Native American. She ran on a strong consumer-protection platform, declaring even at a PNM-sponsored shareholder’s forum that she would stand with consumers against unreasonable rate hikes by the electrical and insurance industries.

Becenti-Aguilar was appointed by Gov. Bill Richardson in July, after the state Supreme Court removed predecessor Carol Sloan from office.

Sloan was conviction on two felony charges stemming from her physical attack on a woman she believed to have been having an affair with her husband. Convicted felons cannot hold elected office in New Mexico.

District 5: Ben Hall

Former Republican state legislator Ben Hall will replace outgoing District 5′s Democratic Commissioner Sandy Jones as the Commission’s representative for a wide swath of southwestern N.M.

Both men had pledged to clean up the Commission. McCamley had pledged strong consumer protections and ethics reforms at the Commission, and took Hall to task for refusing to publicly debate him during the campaign. McCamley called for the creation of an independent task force to review the PRC’s mission and recommend ethics and structural reforms.

“If I am the victor, I certainly appreciate the voters who supported me,” Hall said at 9 p.m. Tuesday. “I think the PRC needs to get its own house in order before it can tell others what to do.”

McCamley acknowledged his prospects for victory were bleak but was not ready to concede the race at 9:02 p.m.

“Republican voters voted a straight party ticket,” McCamley noted. “Democratic voters didn’t vote all the way down the ticket, especially in Valencia County.”

McCamley would not comment further on his race against Hall.

Balderas had received 277,484 votes (54.1%), according to unofficial Secretary of State returns as of 11:10 p.m. Tuesday. His Republican challenger Errol Chavez had received 235,666 votes (45.9%).

A former Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) agent, Chavez, 61, was diagnosed with brain cancer last month and was rushed to Houston, Texas, for emergency treatment during the final weeks of the campaign. He has not answered The Independent’s calls or e-mails over the past week and was reported to have effectively dropped out of the race.

Balderas, 37, is a former prosecutor and state legislator from Wagon Mound and Mora.

During his first term, Balderas investigated former Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron, who faces money laundering and fraud charges, and the infamous $3.3 million Jemez Mountain School District embezzlement case.

Over the past two years, Balderas reduced the number of at-risk government agencies and districts — those that had not submitted annual audits as required under state law — from nearly 100 to fewer than 30.

Balderas is expected to push the Legislature for more staff auditors and new legislation expanding his office’s ability to impose penalties to agencies that violate the state Audit Act or interfere with audits.

The audit agency has suffered budget cuts of 22 percent since Balderas took office, and now faces a budget crisis that could impact his ability to identify fraud and waste, he has said.

But voters approved an amendment allowing the state to waive college tuition for some — but not all– honorably discharged combat veterans, changes in the constitution’s antiquated wording on who may vote in N.M., and an amendment providing property tax exemptions to military veterans’ organizations.

At least two of the successful amendments are controversial and may result in court challenges, according to analyses by the Legislative Council Service.

According to an analysis by the Legislative Council Service, the veterans’ scholarship amendment may “invite a potentially disruptive legal challenge” because it excludes veterans who enlisted while residents of N.M. or who have lived in the state for 10 years. The U.S. Supreme Court has prohibited similar restrictions on veterans’ benefits, as violations of the U.S. Constitution’s equal protection clause, according to the report.

And the seemingly innocuous proposed amendment to remove offensive words (“idiots” and “insane persons”) from the Constitution’s Article 7 definition of who may vote in N.M. also eliminates the current constitutional prohibition of voting by convicted felons who have not been restored their political rights by a judge, the Legislative Council Service analysis also noted.

“Despite a title that indicates the opposite, the proposed amendment eliminates” that prohibition, according to the Service analysis. “The amendment invites a potentially disruptive legal challenge because the ballot title does not accurately reflect the language and provisions contained in the body of Constitutional Amendment No. 3.”

There were five proposed constitutional amendments on the ballot:
• CA1: PASSED, (74.1% to 25.9%, according to unofficial Secretary of State returns as of 10 p.m. Tuesday), to allow colleges to waive tuition for honorably-discharged military veterans of armed conflicts since 1990 who were N.M. residents when they originally enlisted in the military, after they have exhausted their GI Bill and other federal education benefits.
• CA2: FAILED, (15.5% to 84.5%), to relax county commissioners’ term limits from eight years to 12 years.
• CA3: PASSED, (54.2% to 45.8%), to modernize language about who can vote in N.M.
• CA4: PASSED, (52.4% to 47.6%), to exempt veterans’ organizations from state property taxes
• CA5: FAILED, (18.7% to 81.3%), to allow state lawmakers to resign from the Legislature to serve in other branches of state government.

“Meh, I’ve lost before,” she said.

“I think we’re going to see everything, every rate raised arbitrarily now. Republicans don’t care about consumers. Consumers are absolutely the losers in this election. They really missed an opportunity to have a strong advocate on the PRC. If they wanted a crook, I think they got one.”

Lyons could not be reached for comment Tuesday night.

DuBois logged 9,000 miles on a rented car, she said, campaigning throughout the vast District 2, which encompasses most of southwestern N.M.

“We’ve had a relatively smooth day but it’s the poll watchers that are causing problems,” Trujillo said. “They are interfering with election officials’ duties.”

Police were called to remove disruptive GOP poll challengers from two voting precincts in Doña Ana County.

But the problem is more widespread than that, Trujillo said.

“We’ve had issues with watchers in four counties — Doña Ana, Taos, Santa Fe and Bernalillo County today,” Trujillo said. “Mostly it’s been issues with watchers superseding their duties.”

Challengers have attempted to handle voters’ ballots, Trujillo said, but he knew of no cases outside Doña Ana County where challengers demanded voters be required to provide photo ID to vote.

The incidents have been handled by county clerks and election officials at the precincts, Trujilo said. He did not immediately know how many precincts had reported disruptive poll challengers.

Trujillo said he knew of no police responses to precinct disruptions other than those reported for two Doña Ana County precincts.

The N.M. Republican Party has trained at least 350 poll challengers, at least 80 of whom are Albuquerque tea party activists. The state Democratic Party has trained at least 200 of its own poll challengers.

Poll watchers observe the voting process and check which voters have voted, whereas poll challengers can actively challenge voters’ registrations and ballots.

“Most of the problems we’re hearing about today involve Republican poll challengers,” Trujillo said.

However, in Taos County, Democratic and Republican poll challengers have been “equally aggressive,” Taos County Clerk Elaine Montano told The Independent.

Disruptions have occurred at four Taos precincts, Montano said at 6 p.m. Tuesday.

“I don’t know if it has something to do with their training or what the issue is,” Montano said. “They’re very aggressive. The challengers do not understand the rules. It’s being handled by poll workers and presiding judges, and myself.”

Challengers are advising voters who show up at the wrong precincts to request provisional ballots rather than drive to their correct precincts, Montano said. But challengers are not supposed to advise or talk to voters at the polls, Montano said.

None of the incidents in Taos County involved challengers’ demands for voters’ identification documents, Montano said.

The Secretary of State’s office has 15 liaisons at polling places across the state, Trujillo said.

The Secretary of State’s office will compile a report by late this week, detailing their reports of precinct disruptions, Trujillo said.

“There have been incidents at six precincts,” Jimenez said. “At three locations, gentlemen were trying to handle voters’ ballots. At one, he was hovering by the scanner machine and took ballots, and then he — the challenger — placed ballots into the scanner for the voters. …At one location, Tom Baugh Elementary, a challenger was attempting to assist voters. Challengers are not allowed to act as poll workers like that.”

At other precincts, poll challenger repeatedly demanded that poll workers require photo identification from voters, Jimenez said.

“They were disruptive and extremely rude,” Jimenez said. “They told poll workers that they had to take ID from voters.”

“We called the Republican Party (vice) chairman Mark Vandyke and warned them,” Jimenez said. “We said if it happens again, we’ll remove the challengers involved.”

Doña Ana County Republican Party officials did not immediately return The Independent’s phone call for comment. N.M. Republican Party officials referred The Independent to the Doña Ana County Republican Party.

“It’s been relatively smooth otherwise,” Jimenez said. “I hope it stays that way.”

The DOJ observers are there to provide oversight in tribal areas where there have been problems with access for Native voters in the past, Allen said.

“Our field observer said the federal observers were crowding voters a little bit,” Common Cause NM Executive Director Steven Robert Allen told The Independent. “But a precinct judge told them to back off a little bit and they did.”