That’s about the same turnout the state saw in 2006, when 569,000 voted, but there were also fewer registered voters in the state in 2006.

Even though it was a long ballot, most voters took the time to vote for governor; only  2,837 left that race blank.

The candidate who received the most votes statewide? Dianna Duran, who defeated incumbent Democrat Mary Herrera to become Secretary of State with 338,730 votes.

Unofficial results showed Duran winning nearly 59 percent of the vote to defeat first-term incumbent Mary Herrera, who collected just over 41 percent.

“This is just amazing, just amazing,” Duran told a crowd of supporters at the Albuquerque Hilton on Tuesday night. “This is not a night for Dianna Duran. It is a night for New Mexicans.”

Duran said her number one priority as the state’s next Secretary of State would be to lobby state lawmakers to pass photo voter ID. Currently, voters do not have to present a form of identification to vote.

“In New Mexico it is amazing that we have had in poll after poll done, New Mexicans, regardless of party affiliation, regardless of racial ethnicity, have said we want photo voter ID required at our polling places,” Duran said.

Duran, a state senator for 18 years, predicted the idea would resonate with her fellow state lawmakers.

“There are wonderful people in the Legislature, in the Senate and in the House, on both sides of the aisle, we have great people and they understand the need,” Duran said. “In past years when I introduced legislation regarding voter photo ID it’s a bipartisan effort. I don’t like the statement that only Republicans think voter ID is important.”

Duran said another priority would be to establish an investigative arm at the Secretary of State’s office charged with looking into allegations of voter fraud.

Herrera couldn’t escape controversy

Duran, who crisscrossed the state over the past three months talking to voters, had Herrera as much as anyone or anything to thank for her historic victory.

The first-term Democratic incumbent’s hopes for re-election seemed star-crossed from the beginning.

In the weeks preceding Tuesday’s election several of Herrera’s former employees went to the FBI to allege corruption in her administration. A public airing of dirty laundry, and what appears to be a full-blown mutiny, is rare for any public official, but during election time it was startling. It hurt Herrera with negative publicity while playing to Duran’s advantage, providing fodder for her campaign and material for ads.

Combined with Herrera’s testy relationship with some New Mexico county clerks, hints that her office had been in turmoil for years and problems with the office’s website, the accusations proved too much of a liability for Herrera to overcome.

Herrera, for her part, repeatedly dismissed the allegations of corruption as politically motivated. But the damage was done and Herrera’s vulnerability became all-too-clear in her inability to raise as much money as Duran.

This fall, many of the state’s largest newspapers endorsed Duran.

Duran had fundraising advantage

Since late June Duran collected $160,000 for her run compared to the $78,000 Herrera raised, state records show.

Duran’s candidacy got a serious boost from the state GOP, which gave Duran’s campaign two $25,000 checks while the company run by GOP chairman Harvey Yates also contributed $5,000.

In contrast, there were no big checks from the state Democratic party to bolster Herrera’s campaign as of last Tuesday, state records show. Herrera’s biggest contribution, $20,000 on Oct. 18, came from the Democratic Association of Secretaries of State.

Other than that $20,000 check, Herrera’s single-largest contributions were from American Federation of State County Municipal Employees ($5,000, Aug. 4), Plumbers and Steamfittters Local #410 ($5,000, July 23) and racetrack owner Paul Blanchard ($5,000, Oct. 25), records show.

Duran meanwhile collected $7,500 from Mack Energy Co. of Artesia and $5,000 each from Bank Consultants Inc. of Carlsbad and Wyoming investor Foster Friess.

State party helps push Duran through to victory

A longtime political observer had predicted earlier this year that the state party would need to help Duran if she had any hope of beating a Democrat for an office that Democrats seemed to own since 1930, the year the state last had a GOP Secretary of State.

The party came through.

Duran had experience running local elections

Even if Herrera hadn’t had to overcome a toxic mix of problems, she might have had a hard time this year.

Voting trends appeared to heavily favor the GOP this year, fueled by the poor economy and the numerous scandals that have afflicted New Mexico in recent years. Several high-profile Democrats have either pleaded guilty or been convicted of corruption, while others have  been indicted.

In Duran, Herrera also faced a dangerous opponent: a GOP state senator with a working knowledge of the state elections code after two terms as Otero County Clerk.

County clerks run local elections.

Duran, for her part, has said she will restore integrity to the Secretary of State’s office.

Political observers marveled at Duran’s historic victory Tuesday.

“It takes two things for a Republican to have a chance in a lower profile (statewide) race,” New Mexico pollster Brian Sanderoff of Albuquerque-based Research and Polling Inc. told The Independent on Tuesday.

“To have a good candidate, and for the mood of the state to be leaning Republican,” Sanderoff said. “Both the ingredients played right into their advantage” this year.

“I am ready to say the people of New Mexico have spoken,” she told The Independent before taking the podium at the Albuquerque Hilton where Republicans were watching election results.

Unofficial results appear to show that Duran has defeated first-term Democratic Secretary of State Mary Herrera. If those results hold, Duran will become the first GOP Secretary of State in 80 years.

As of 9 p.m. the Secretary of State’s website was showing Duran leading Herrera by 30,000 votes.

“This is not a night for Dianna Duran,” Duran told the crowd at the Hilton. “It is a night for New Mexicans. I cannot thank you enough.”

I just cannot thank you enough.

“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.

The contributions came in the waning weeks of the 2010 election season as Duran, a GOP state senator, hopes to become New Mexico’s first Republican Secretary of State in 80 years by knocking off first-term Democratic Secretary of State Mary Herrera, who is seeking re-election.

Duran easily outpaced Herrera in contributions the last reporting period, but Herrera had not filed her report as of this writing to see if Duran had kept her fundraising edge.

Duran’s fundraising haul was powered by a $25,000 contribution from the state Republican Party and a $7,500 contribution from Mack EnergyCorp. of Artesia. She also received two $5,000 contributions ,

She also received a pair of $5,000 contributions — one from Bank Consultants Inc. of Carlsbad, and one from Foster Friess, an investor from Jackson, Wyoming.

Friess made a big splash earlier this election season when he gave Republican gubernatorial candidate $200,000.

According to her report, Duran spent $130,000 in the three weeks between Oct. 5 and Tuesday, with $125,000 of that coming in two media buys.

Duran reported having $32,000 on hand at the end of the reporting period.

But ballots from Curry, Los Alamos, McKinley, Rio Arriba, Sandoval and Taos counties were sent out two to four days late without New Mexico getting an exemption from the federal government. This got the Department of Justice’s attention and resulted in an extension for overseas ballots.

There are 844 military and overseas ballots in New Mexico.

Herrera’s Republican challenger, state senator Dianna Duran, reported raising $54,000 and finished the period with $84,000 cash on hand.

Herrera’s largest donation, of $2,000, came from Sierras y Llanos LLC. The only other four-digit donation was a $1,000 donation from the New Mexico Federation of Labor. The Ben Lujan Speaker Fund also donated $500 to the embattled Secretary of State.

Herrera also received a $2,000 in-kind donation from Alvin Gallegos, a printer from Albuquerque.

By far, Herrera’s largest expense was $27,000, in the form of a $25,000 and $2,000 payment both on September 20, to R and R for “Media.”

Herrera also spent $3,500 on a golf course fundrasier at Los Altos Golf Course on September 19, but raised just $3,400 on that day. Her two biggest donations came the day after the golf tournament fundraiser.

All of Herrera’s expenses came between September 18 and 27. Overall, Herrera spent $32,489.71.

Update:

Cash on hand numbers in the title and post fixed.

“He says somebody broke in. Give me a break,” Herrera told Haussamen. “… I really do think it’s staged.”

Salazar resigned earlier this year and wrote a scathing resignation letter accusing Herrera of violating the Governmental Conduct Act and election laws.

According to Salazar and others, Herrera required her political hires to help with her reelection campaign and made improper requests for donations from contractors doing business with the office.

At the time, Herrera said Salazar resigned because he wanted vacation time and she wouldn’t grant it.

Here, for example, is the ballot for Bernalillo County’s 1st precinct:

BernCo 1st precinct sample ballot 2010 general election

“I haven’t seen what they’re claiming. I would be interested to see it,” Herrera told me during a minutes-long phone interview. ”I know it’s not true.”

By now, the allegations made by Herrera’s former elections director A.J. Salazar, former office manager Manny Vildasol and former communications director James Flores are well known to those following the Secretary of State’s office and this year’s election race.

Salazar, Flores and Vildasol, who all have gone to the FBI to allege wrongdoing in her office, have alleged that employees were forced to solicit “sponsorships or donations” from businesses that contract with the state to possible kickbacks on contracts and having office employees campaign for Herrera on state time.

Meanwhile the Rio Grande Sun recently wrote a story based on 189 pages of documents, including Secretary of State office e-mail, obtained by the paper. The Sun noted in its Sept. 2 story that none of the “documents indicate a pay-to-play scheme or overt violations of federal election law, although they do call into question the integrity of the Office’s election-related investigations.”

Herrera referred to the Sun story at least twice during Friday’s interview, saying it backed up her contention that nothing untoward was happening in her office, which isn’t exactly what I took away from the Sun article.

Herrera’s references to the Sun story appear to undermine the statement that she doesn’t know what’s being alleged and indicate that she’s very aware of not only what the accusations are, but also what’s being written about them.

Herrera has repeatedly dismissed the allegations as politically motivated, a position she’s not detouring from, at least in her interview with me.

Herrera also declined to discuss why Vildasol and Flores were fired last week. Both men were terminated after being placed on paid administrative leave and are threatening to sue Herrera under the state’s whistle-blower act.