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 report on election protection efforts in 2008 by a statewide coalition was released by Common Cause today. It reports on how the 2008 election year went in terms of ensuring that every vote counted and makes proposals for…
Whatever the consequences for Gov. Bill Richardson personally, his withdrawal from the commerce secretary post raises serious questions about how business is done in New Mexico. It’s not the first time that the shadow of corruption has hung over the state, but this story has the potential to be the most damaging because it could involve not just him, but people who worked for Richardson as well.
Although the election went relatively smoothly on Nov. 4, the voter registration process was plagued by scandal and partisan warfare in the months leading up to the vote. Now some legislators and voting rights groups want to change the way we handle voter registration, making it an automatic, universal process.
New Mexico voting rights advocates reported this morning that there have been few problems reported so far on this election day. Nationally, the McCain/Palin campaign held a conference call with reporters on the subject of vote fraud—without saying anything about any actual vote fraud. And poll workers in Albuquerque’s North Valley blame early voting for a slow day at the polls.
Common Cause New Mexico just announced that it is asking the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate charges of voter intimidation in New Mexico, after NMI reported that a private investigator hired by Republican Party of New Mexico attorney Pat…
The government watchdog group Common Cause New Mexico on Wednesday questioned the claims of voter fraud made last week by state Republicans. In a press release, the nonpartisan, nonprofit government watchdog group said it “concluded that recent assertions regarding ‘undeniable proof that there was voter fraud in the June election’ are simply inaccurate. Contrary to the claims of a Republican spokesperson, the copies of registration forms that the party released to the media last week do not constitute clear evidence of ‘voter fraud in the 2008 primary in Albuquerque.’”
New Mexico Republican leaders claimed they had evidence of actual voter fraud and presented a sheaf of voter registration forms as evidence, saying that many registrants had the same Social Security numbers. Now the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico has asked the state attorney general to initiate a criminal investigation into whether the Bernalillo County Clerk’s Office may have released confidential information to the Republican Party of New Mexico, and whether the Party then publicly distributed that information in violation of state laws.
One of Bernalillo County’s key financial decision-makers has been moonlighting as a political consultant, doing paid campaign work for state legislators who support a project he helped to oversee, as well as other politicians he calls his friends.
