Bernalillo County Commissioner Michael Wiener — not to be confused with Rep. Anthony Weiner, who faces calls to resign after mistakenly tweeting a picture of his crotch intended as a direct message — has been cleared of sexual harassment by an independent staff commission. The commission did characterize his comments as “inappropriate,” according to the Albuquerque Journal.

Here’s the gist of the employee complaint:

In Smyer’s complaint, she said Wiener stood in the doorway to her office and said “looking good.” His tone of voice and the way he looked at her made Smyer think he was “talking about her physical appearance,” according to the report.

Wiener maintains he was talking about the office’s decorations and fresh paint. It hadn’t been occupied by anyone previously, he said.

“It was simply a misunderstanding,” he told the Journal in an interview last week.

According to the investigative report, Smyer said that on another occasion, Wiener told her an offensive joke, a pun on his name and the last name of Commissioner Wayne Johnson: “Did you know that the (County Commission) now has a Wiener and a Johnson on it?”

Wiener said later that he was talking about the different kinds of hot dogs, not male genitalia, and that he was just repeating a joke he’d heard from another commissioner…

On another occasion, Oliver said, Wiener leaned over and made a sexual joke during a commission meeting. There was talk about changing positions on a certain issue, and Wiener told her, “I don’t care what position we take, as long as doggy style is included.”

Wiener has a history of off-color comments as commissioner — he forwarded racist e-mails last year:

The forwarded message – titled “Sex in the Shower” – suggesting that most African-Americans are either in prison or have been. He sent the message from his private email account to the government accounts of two other county officials.

Wiener later said he doesn’t have a “racist bone in my body.”

Wiener also faced criticism last year for other emails. In one message, he referred to a Santa Fe man as “VERY Hispanic and NOT very sophisticated – very very BLUE Collar.” He signed another email “Commissioner Rodney King” after quoting King – “Can we all get along?” – in a message about a neighborhood dispute over loud music.

The complaint did not meet the threshold for “hostile work environment.”

The early and absentee votes were nearly identical for the two candidates. Heinrich got 55,144 early and absentee votes while Barela received 54,381 early and absentee.

In the gubernatorial race, Susana Martinez pulled 53 percent of the early and absentee votes, or 61,056 votes and Diane Denish received 47 percent of the vote, or 59,929 votes.

Dianna Durran received nearly 60 percent of the early and absentee votes in the Secretary of State’s race to Mary Herrera’s 40 percent.

In the attorney general’s race, Gary King led in the early and absentee vote with 52 percent and Republican challenger Matt Rush received 28 percent.

Toulouse Oliver said the man, who supported Republican candidates, was initially reported for campaigning within 100 feet of a polling location; a troubleshooter from the county was sent out and measured the distance.

At last report, the situation had been diffused by Albuquerque Public Schools police officers.

The vote counting warehouse in Bernalillo County an hour before polls close

The Bernalillo County absentee vote count is nearly finished, according to Bernalillo County Clerk Maggie Toulouse Oliver.

Workers and volunteers are just finishing up the last of the absentee ballots the county has already received and preparing for the rest of the ballots that will come in at 7 p.m. when the polls close. These include absentee ballots that voters brought to their polling location rather than mailing them in, and provisional ballots from polling locations around the state.

As in 2008, it appears that the early and absentee ballots cast in Bernalillo County will be probably be posted shortly after polls close.

But there are more registered Democrats in the state’s largest population center and more of them voted early: 39,703 Democrats and 31,223 Republicans voted early.

According to the Bernalillo County Clerk’s office, Republicans make up 32 percent of registered voters, but 38 percent of the 80,817 pepole who voted early.

By contrast, Democrats make up 47 percent of the voters in the county and only 49 percent of early voters.

Republicans still maintain a slight advantage in returned absentee ballots, though Democrats have a larger amount of outstanding absentee ballots and can easily make up the gap. Absentee ballots are due to the county clerk’s office by 7:00 on Tuesday.

Through Sunday, 33,237 voters in Albuquerque had returned their absentee ballots. 15,421 of these are Republicans and 14,513 are Democrats, with the remaining 3,303 either decline to state or third party voters.

There are still 10,314 outstanding absentee ballots in Bernalillo County. Of those, 6,122 are from registered Democrats, 2,866 are registered Republicans and 1,326 are decline to state or registered to a third party.

As of today, 40,281 voters have cast early in-person ballots in the 17 locations throughout Bernalillo County. Of those, 19,117 were registered Democrats and 16,809 were registered Republicans. The remaining 4,335 either declined to register with a party or are members of other parties.

The Republicans lead in returned absentee ballots 11,145 to 9,646 for the Democrats. The remaining 2,142 absentee ballots are either decline to state voters or independent voters for a total of 22,933 returned absentee ballots in the county.

There have been 55,456 absentee ballots requested, 29,910 for Democrats, 20,923 for Republicans and 5,080 for other voters.

Republicans are outstripping Democrats in the number of absentee ballots returned. Of the more than 20,000 absentee ballots returned, 10,900 are from registered Republicans and another 8,532 are from registered Democrats. The remaining 1,871 are listed as “other.”

In the 2008 general election, over 126,000 early in-person voters cast early in person votes in Bernalillo County. Of those, 69,385 were Democrats, 37,430 were Republicans and the remaining 19,929 were decline to state or third party voters.

Turnout is always higher in presidential elections than midterm elections such as this year’s elections.

The report examined a situation involving a former deputy county manager and his son, Jamie Dantis, who appeared to have been treated differently than other employees because of who his father is.

But the report — the subject of several public records requests — had significant portions blacked out, leading one transparency champion to critique the county’s decision to redact the report.

“It’s understandable when an agency wants to move on from a scandal. But the public might not want to move on, and government is still obligated to provide information the public needs to protect the county treasury and county facilities,” Sarah Welsh, executive director of the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government, told the Journal.

Mexican consul Gustavo de Unanue has accused city Aviation Police Chief Marshall Katz of racial profiling, the Journal reports. Katz pulled over a Mexican national for speeding in July and subsequently turned the man and the man’s father over to U.S. Border Patrol agents. According to the consulate’s letter to Albuquerque Mayor Richard Berry, the family’s statements about the traffic stop “have given sufficient grounds to suspect racial profiling, discrimination against Mexican nationals and abuse of authority.”

State agencies and programs face another 3.2 percent budget cut starting next month under a plan approved Thursday to close a shortfall in the state’s $5.3 billion budget, the Santa Fe New Mexico reports. The cuts will shave $151 million from this year’s budget. Public schools will escape further cuts for now, thanks to federal economic stimulus money.

Despite lying to Bernalillo County officials and allegedly falsifying an incident report, detox supervisor Dwight Dias will not lose his job over favorable treatment for Jamie Dantis, the son of former Deputy County Manager John Dantis, according to the Albuquerque Journal. Instead, Dias faces a 60-day suspension and will be reassigned to a counselor’s position at the county jail — with a cut in salary from $60,000 a year to $35,000.

The City of Española shut two municipal water wells because of high uranium levels, the Rio Grande SUN reports. The move leaves only four of the city’s nine wells in operation. Water quality has been a continuing problem in the Española Valley.